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LIVES 



OF 



>iETHODIST SiSHOPS. 



EDITED BY 



THEODOEE L. FLOOD, D.D. 



JOHl^ W. PIAMILTO]:^, D.D. 




NEW YORK : 

:r:e3:i31jIji:f>s ^ xxxjtsTT. 
cincinnati : 

^ATALDEN & STOWE. 
1882. 






Copyright 1882, by 
New York. 



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TO 
OUR REVEREND FATHERS IN GOD, 

AND 

TO THEIR OBEDIENT SONS AND DAUGHTERS IN THE GOSPEL 

THROUGHOUT ALL 

OUR UNITED SOCIETIES, 

IS 

BY THE EDITORS. 



PREFACE 



HISTOEY is only a compilation of biographies, and the true study 
of history is from the stand-point of the men who make it. But 
because it is philosophical, it is none the less pleasurable thus to study 
it. There, is enough of romance in the personal struggles, ambitions 
and successes, disappointments and defeats, of the historic men in 
the world, to exhilarate the mind through a deal of otherwise dull and 
distasteful details concerning simple events. And some such romance 
must go into the account of ecclesiastical events, or Church history 
will find few persons either pious enough or studious enough to read 
it, much less to study it. The histories which are the most read are 
the biographies which are the best written. 

In these Life Sketches we have furnished the reader with a history 
of Episcopal Methodism from the stand-point of the men who have 
come down to us from the beginning of the Societies, and who, 
because of their position and influence, have not only had much to do 
with formulating the doctrines and polity of the Church, but were 
themselves personally related to preachers and people throughout the 
connection. 

Methodism is rich in the biographies of her people, and many 
eminent and worthy ministers who were not bishops, as well as many 
eminent and worthy laymen, have afforded their biographers an abun- 
dance of material for the best of life-stories. But no one of all the 
bishops has made it impossible, by a stain of character, for his biog- 
raphy to be written and read as a creditable legacy to the Church. 
!N^ot even the Churches laying claim to an uninterrupted succession of 
bishops by Divine appointment have been as fortunate in this regard. 
Our chief pastors have brought no dishonor to our communion. 

These pen portraits reveal a sagacity of mind, a depth of piety, 
and a strength of character belonging to the men, worthy of the high 



8 Preface. 

calling to which they had been chosen. In no instance has the office 
been one of ease or emolnment. Not nnfrequently have the men, like 
the first apostles, after much sacrifice and toil, suffered martyrdom. 

We have chosen to write in fnll concerning only the deceased 
bishops — tlie men whose work is ended — that no personal element 
might enter into a judgment of their characters or ministry. But an 
Appendix has been added in which is given a brief outline of the life 
of each living bishop, to make the succession complete. 

While an occasional biography of some one of the bishops has 
appeared at intervals in the history of the Church, this volume will 
present tlie only complete and connected account of all the men and 
their Avork which has been published. In selecting the men to write 
the sketches, we sought always to find persons who, by reason of their 
relations to the deceased bishops, or some sj)ecial study of their lives, 
were best able to give full and impartial estimates of their characters 
and work. We may speak freely, as our work has been chiefly that 
of editors. The task of bringing together so many excellent things in 
the unity of a book will be abundantly compensated by the pleasure 
of possessing such an admirable collection of rare portraits by eminent 
artists — a gallery in itself. 

The preparation of such a volume has also given an opportunity 
for collecting many important but hitherto unwritten facts and inci- 
dents from the older men among us, which ought to be preserved in 
some permanent form before their generation shall have passed away. 

The order of arrangement in the plan of the book has been to fol- 
low the different branches of the Church in the natural order of their 
development. And no attempt has been made to show the organic 
unity of Methodism, or to claim superior excellence in any particular 
of doctrine or government for one branch of the Church over another. 
We have simply given the story of how these men wrought their 
work in the Church, finished their course in the world, and kept their 
faith in the Son of God. 

The plates used for the illu stmt ions have been obtained with great 
difficulty and at no little expense. In some instances we were almost 
ready to abandon the search for pictures of the earlier bishops, when 
from some neglected quarter we would receive through distant rela- 
tives an indistinct daguerreotype, or a much worn portrait on wood. 



Preface. 9 

These tlie artists have been able to use so satisfactorily as to obtain 
plates for even better engravings than the most intimate friends and 
relatives of the bishops could have anticipated. 

It is with great pleasure we acknowledge our indebtedness to the 
many contributors who have so readily and cheerfully acceded to our 
requests, in devoting their time and study to the preparation of the 
sketches, which has necessarily called them aside from a great pressure 
of duties in other and not infrequently official directions. For valu- 
able assistance and advice we recognize special acknowledgment due to 
the Rev. Bishop Matthew Simpson, D.D., LL.D. ; and to the memories 
of the late Eev. Bishops E. S. Janes, D.D., LL.D., Edward Ra,ymond 
Ames, D.D., LL.D., and Gilbert Llaven, D.D., LL.D. We also return 
thanks to many of our brethren in the ministry, and to the relatives 
of many of the deceased bishops, for the interesting and important 
material they have furnished for preparing the sketches, and the great 
assistance they have rendered in procuring the pictures and portraits. 

The enterjDrising Agents of the Methodist Book Concern, Messrs. 
Phillips & Hunt, are justly entitled to the great credit they have 
secured to themselves by the character of the engravings with which 
ihe book is illustrated, and the style in which it is prepared. 

While, as Editors, we have only produced the first volume of a 
series which must remain incomplete as long as bishops continue in 
the Church, we have hoped that it might, at least in the estimate of 
Episcopal Methodists, retain its place as Yolume First in the Lives of 
the Methodist Bishops. 

John W. Hamilton, 
Theodore L. Flood. 



INTRODUCTION. 



THE office of a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church was provi- 
dentially conferred upon, and assumed by, the father and founder 
of the Wesleyan Societies in England and America. But it was never 
wholly conferred upon him in an ecclesiastical way, nor arbitrarily as- 
sumed in an wnecclesiastical way. The first preacher who exercised the 
office of bishop among the Methodists was not elected to the episcopacy 
by any body of Christian believers, and was not, so far as we know, 
ordained to that office in accordance with the usage of any branch of 
the Christian Church. The second preacher who exercised the episco- 
pal functions, but who has usually been called the first bishop, was ap- 
pointed to the office without an election, and ordained by the imposition 
of the hands of the first. But the Methodist Church has never offered 
an apology for the existence of her Episcopacy, and will allow no one 
to question the right of a single one of her bishops to exercise the 
duties of his office. 

The Greek word episcopos, Latin episcopus, and English bishop, have 
occasioned frequent controversies in the Church, and often separated 
the disputants into widely differing denominations. But these very 
differences have proved the safeguards of the spirit-life in the Church. 

To believe one definition of episcopos right, is not to argue another 
wrong. Episcopalians may and do differ among themselves as widely 
as they may differ from Presbyterians. " It ought to be understood," 
says Dr. Samuel Miller, "that among those who espouse the episcopal 
side, there are three classes. 

" The first consists of those who believe that neither Christ nor his 
apostles laid down any particular form of ecclesiastical government to 
which the Church is bound to adhere in all ages. That every Church 
is free, consistently with the divine will, to frame her own constitution 
agreeably to her own views, to the state of society, and the exigen- 
cies of particular times. These prefer the episcopal government, and 
some of them believe it was the primitive form ; but they consider it 



1 2 Introductiois". 

resting on the ground of hwman expediency alone, and not of divine 
appointment. 

This is well known to have been the opinion of Archbishops Cran- 
mer, Grindal, Whitgift, Leighton, and Tillotson ; ^of Bishops Jewel, 
Reynolds, Burnet, and Croft ; of Drs. Whitaker, Stillingfleet, and of a 
long list of the most learned and pious divines of the Church of En- 
gland, from the Reformation down to the present day. 

"Another class of Episcopalians go further. They suppose that the 
government of the Church by bishops, as a superior order to presbyters, 
was sanctioned by apostolic example, and that it is the duty of all the 
Churches to imitate this example. But while they consider episcopacy 
as necessary to the perfection of the Church, they grant that it is by 
no means necessary to her existence ; and accordingly, without hesita- 
tion, acknowledge as true Churches of Christ many in which the episco- 
pal doctrine is rejected and presbyterian principles made the basis of 
ecclesiastical government. The advocates of this opinion, also, have 
been numerous and respectable, both among the clerical and lay mem- 
bers of the Episcopal Churches in England and the United States. In 
this list appear the venerable names of Bishop Hall, Bishop Downham, 
Bishop Bancroft, Bishop Andrews, Archbishop Usher, Bishop Forbes, 
the learned Chillingworth, Archbishop Wake, Bishop Hoadley, and 
many more. 

"A third class go much beyond either of the former. While they 
grant that God has left men at liberty to modify every other kind of 
government according to circumstances, they contend that one form of 
government for the Church is unalterably fixed by divine appointment ; 
that this form is episcopal ; that it is absolutely essential to the existence 
of the Church ; that, of course, wherever it is wanting there is no Church, 
no regular ministry, no valid ordinances ; and that all who are united 
with religious societies not conforming to this order are ' aliens from 
Christ,' ' out of the appointed way to heaven,' and have no hope but in 
the uncovenanted mercies, of God." 

"It is confidently believed," continues Dr. Miller, "that the two 
former classes, taken together, embrace at least nineteen parts out of 
twenty of all the Episcopalians in Great Britain and the United States ; 
while, so far as can be learned from the most respectable writings, and 
other authentic sources of information, it is only the small remaining 
proportion who hold the extravagant opinions assigned to the third and 
last of these classes." 



Introduction. 1 3 

Dr. Coke and Mr. Asbury, in tlieir Notes to the Discipline, published 
at the request of the General Conference shortly after tliey were made 
bishops, declared that '' the most bigoted devotees to religious estab- 
lishments (the clergy of the Church of Rome excepted) are now 
ashamed to support the doctrine of the apostolic, uninterrupted succes- 
sion of bishops ; and yet nothing but an apostolic, uninterrupted succes- 
sion, can possibly confine the right of episcopacy to any particular Church. 
The idea of an apostolic succession being exploded, it follows that the 
Methodist Church has every thing which is scriptural and essential to 
justify its episcopacy." 

We have said that the office of bishop in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church was providentially conferred, and this we have said believing 
" plain John Wesley the fountain of our episcopal authority." Called 
of God to his place in the history of the Christian Church as certainly 
as Paul was called to be an apostle to the Gentiles, he was providentially 
appointed and spiritually ordained a bishop from his very relation to 
his followers, who in England were discarded by the Establishment, 
and in America were shepherdless wanderers. This is the divine 
element in our Wesleyan episcopacy. Mr. Etheridge, Doctor in Phi- 
losophy in the University of Heidelberg, says in his life of Rev. Thomas 
Coke, " Both Mr, Wesley and Dr. Coke recognized an apostolical succes- 
sion, viewed as implying a due transmission of the Christian ministry. 
How could they do otherwise, believing as they did the promise of 
Christ : ' Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world ? ' — 
words which indicate the certainty of a perpetual succession, with the 
persons composing which Jesus declares he would be always. The 
Methodists, who retain the sentiments of their founder, believe in the 
perpetuation of the Christian ministry in its pure teachings, its holy 
zeal, its earnest labors, and its saving effects, by the agency of men 
spiritually qualified for it, and openly recognized and appointed as the 
servants and ministers of Christ, and under him the pastors and shepherds 
of his Church. This succession is an historical and visible fact. This it 
was which led Mr. Wesley to the headship in the college of Methodist 
bishops. He had a clear discernment of the providential leadings in the 
matter. *You,' said he to Mr. Asbury, 'are the elder brother of the 
American Methodists ; I am, under God, the father of the whole family. 
Therefore I naturally care for you all in a manner no other person can. 
Therefore I, in a measure, provide for you all.' " 

And Mr. Moore, in his " Life of Wesley," tells us that Mr. Wesley did 



1 4 iNTRODUCTIOISr. 

himself assert that he believed himself to be a scriptural emaKonog, 
copos, as much as any man in England or Europe. Mr. Coke, in giving 
his consent to receive the Wesleyan ordination prior to sailing for 
America, wrote to Mr. Wesley as follows : — 

"The more maturely I consider the subject the more expedient it 
seems to me that the power of ordaining others should be received by 
me from you by the imposition of your hands, . . . An authority formally 
received from you will (I am conscious of it) be fully admitted by the 
people, and my exercising the office of ordination without that formal 
authority may be disputed, if there be any opposition on any other ac- 
count. I could, therefore, earnestly wish you would exercise that power 
in this instance, which I have not the shadow of a doubt but God hath 
invested you with, for the good of the Connection." 

But the episcopacy had a legitimate human appointment. Mr. Wes- 
ley had been ordained both a 'deacon and a presbyter in the Church of 
England. Dr. Emory, in "A Defense of our Fathers," says : " Lord 
King maintains that bishops and presbyters in the Primitive Church 
were the same order. Yet he expressly says that the bishops, when 
chosen such from among the presbyters, were ordained as bishojys by im- 
position of hands." " The extension of the jurisdiction of the bishop," 
he continues, "in consequence of the extension of the Church, is not 
the creating any new office, and certainly cannot make it less proper 
that he should be solemnly ordained by imposition of hands, and fur- 
nished with suitable credentials. The revival of such an itinerant, ex- 
tensive, personal oversight and inspection, is the revival of the apostolic 
practice, and, as Mr. Wesley says, v.'ell agrees both with their practice 
and with their writings." And " the idea that equals," he forcibly re- 
marks, " cannot, from among themselves, constitute an officer who, as an 
officer, shall be superior to any of those by whom he was constituted, is 
contradicted by all experience and history, both civil and ecclesiastical, 
and equally by common sense. The contrary is too plain to require 
illustration." 

The third ordination in the Christian ministry is therefore to a juris- 
dictional office whose functions are peculiar to itself, and do not belong 
in the privileges and duties of a presbyter. They are not wholly govern- 
mental, as the Church, which is " the true original subject of all power," 
has committed to this office, wherever it exists, the right to ordain. Cer- 
tainly no greater necessity could have existed for the assumption of such 
jurisdictional office than that found in the neglect of the Wesleyan 



Introduction. 15 

Societies by the English Church. And, as Dr. Bangs declared, "Mr. 
Wesley possessed a right over the Methodists which no man else did or 
could possess, because they were his spiritual children, raised up under 
his preaching and superintendence, and hence they justly looked to him 
for a supply of the ordinances of Jesus Christ." It was incumbent upon 
him as founder of his Societies, and not simply because of any right in- 
herent in him as a presbyter, to institute a jurisdictional episcopacy, and 
ordain men to the office to assist him in the government of his people, 
and perpetuate their organization after his death. 

If he had not provided for his own, and especially for those of his 
own house, he would have denied the faith, and been worse than an infi- 
del. And the choice that he made in selecting an episcopal form of 
government comported well with his own training, as well as with wliat 
he deemed to be the need of the people whom he served, for his wish to 
the last was, that they would conform themselves to "the discipline of the 
Church of England." 

Taken Mr. Wesley's right of relation to his followers as father and 
founder, and the right of the presbytery to originate an episcopate, what 
ordination ever was or could have been accomplished more " decently and 
in order," than the appointment and consecration of the Rev. Dr. Coke to 
the office of bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church ? Four presby- 
ters of the Established Church were present to assist in the ceremonies. 
" Looked at from the canonical side," says Mr. Etheridge, " we admit it 
w^as an irregularity, and one which, to his own feelings as a churchman, 
was warranted only by necessity. But considered from a scriptural 
point of view it was no irregularity at all, but a transaction in thorough 
harmony with apostolic principle and practice. And indeed," he adds, 
" there were once bishops of this presbyterian type in the British Church. 
Beda, mentioning Cedda, one of the most active missionaries among the 
Saxons, writes that he had received episcopal consecration from a bishop 
who had himself been ordained by the presbyters of lona." But when 
Dr. Coke was ordained a bishop the Methodist episcopate was not yet 
perfected. So far it was only a Wesleyan and English appointment and 
ordination. 

When the Christmas Conference which convened in Baltimore, 
A.D. 1784, for the reception of Dr. Coke and the organization of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, at the suggestion of Mr. Asbury had voted 
unanimously to receive the bishop who had been appointed and or- 
dained for them, and had also elected and witnessed the ordination of 



1 Introduction". 

Mr. Asbur}" as joint bishop, the work was ended, and the episcopal order 
established. Had the American Societies remained a part of the En- 
glish work, both the appointments and ordinations of Mr. Wesley would 
have remained a valid and sufficient episcopacy. But once separated from 
Mr. Wesley, the right to appoint and ordain bishops reverted to the 
presbyters, the only remaining representatives of the Church in such 
matters — just where the right would rest to-day were all the bishops 
to die. 

It is true the bishops were called superintendents, but Mr. Wesley 
considered the terra "superintendent" as synonymous with "bishop." 
The Rev. Wm. Watters, who was present at the organization of the 
Church, also declares, "from first to last the business of general assist- 
ant, superintendent, or bishop, has been the same ; only since we have 
become a distinct Church he has, with the assistance of two or three 
elders, ordained our ministers." Mr. Wesley objected to the name 
" bishop " because of the English association, but never to the functions 
and duties of the office. The name of "bishop" was substituted for 
" superintendent " in the " Discipline " printed by Dr. Coke and Mr. 
Asbury two or three years after they came into the office, and at the 
next Conference the change was approved by the preachers. The super- 
intendents came to be styled, as they now remain, bishops in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, having the executive authority and office in the 
Church. Hence, by an original providential selection and a script- 
urally authoritative ordination, and an unmistakably Wesleyan succes- 
sion, we have a genuinely apostolic bishopric among the Methodists. 
And, as Dr. Stevens has said, "The Methodist bishops were the first 
Protestant bishops, and Methodism was the first Protestant Episcopal 
Church of the New World ; and as Wesley had given it the Anglican 
Articles of Religion and the Liturgy, wisely abridged, it became, both 
by its precedent organization and its subsequent numerical iniportance, 
the real successor to the Anglican Church in America." 

JoHN^ W. Hamilton^, 
Theodore L. Flood. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Introduction 11 

Sketch of Methodist Episcopal 

Church 21 

John Wesley 23 

Thomas Coke 41 

Francis Asbury "75 

Richard Whatcoat. 107 

William M'Kendree 129 

Enoch George I-IO 

Robert Richford Roberts 167 

Elijah Hedding 189 

John Emory 203 

Beverly Waugh 225 

Thomas Asbury Morris 265 

Leonidas Lent Hamliue 289' 

Edmund Storer Janes 309 

Osmon Cleander Baker 327 

Edward Raymond Ames 353 

Francis Burns 373 

Davis Wasgatt Clark 393 

Edward Thomson 425 

Calvin Kiugsley 451 

John Wright Roberts 475 

Gilbert Haven 483 

Erastus Otis Haven 501 

Origin of the Methodist Episcopal 

Church, South 509 

Joshua Soule 515 

James Osgood Andrew 533 

John Early 545 

William Capers 557 

Henry Bidleman Bascom 575 



PAGE 

Enoch Mather Marvin 595 

David Seth Doggett 611 

Sketch of Evangelical Association. 626 

Jacob Albright 629 

John Seybert 639 

Joseph Long 643 

African Methodist Episcopal Church 645 

Richard Allen 649 

William Paul Quinn 659 

Morris Brown 669 

Edward Waters 677 

African Methodist Episcopal Zion 

Church 679 

Solomon T. Scott 681 

James Varic 685 

Christopher Rusli 687 

William Miller 691 

George Galbreath 693 

Methodist Episcopal Church of Can- 
ada 699 

John Reynolds 700 

John Alley 715 

Philander Smith 725 

James Richardson. 745 

British Methodist Episcopal Church. 755 
Willis Nazrey 756 

The British Methodist Episcopal 

Church of North America 761 

Augustus R. Green 762 



Contents. 



APPENDIX 

Sketches of Living Bishops. 



Methodist Episcopal Church : 

Levi Scott f 68 

Matthew Simpson 768 

Thomas Bowman *? 69 

William L. Harris ''69 

Randolph S. Foster 770 

I. W. Wiley 771 

Steplien M. Merrill 771 

E. G. Andrews 772 

Jesse T. Peck 772 

Henry W. Warren 773 

Cyrus D. Foss 774 

John F. Hurst 774 

Methodist Episcopal Church, South : 

Robert Paine 775 

G-eorge F. Pierce 775 

H. H. Kavanaugh 776 

William M. Wightman 776 

Holland N. M'Tyeire 777 

John Christian Keener 778 

Alpheus Waters Wilson 778 

Linus Parker 779 

John Cooper Granberry 780 

Robert Kennon Hargrove 781 



Evangelical Association : 

J. J. Esher 782 

Rudolph Dubbs 782 

Reuben Yeakel 783 

Thomas Bowman 783 

African Methodist Episcopal Church: 

Daniel Payne 784 

A. W. Weyman 784 

Jabez Pitt Campbell 784 

James A. Shorter 785 

John M. Brown 786 

African M. E. Zion Church: 

Joseph J. Clinton 787 

John J. Moore 787 

Singleton T. Jones 787 

James W. Hood 788 

Sampson D. Talbot 788 

Canadian M. E. Church : 

Albert Carman 790 

Colored Methodist Episcopal Church 
OF America: 

W. H. Miles 791 

L. H. Holsey 791 

Isaac Lane 791 



PORTRAITS 



PAGE 

John Wesley Front. 

i Thomas Coke 40 

Francis Asbury > 74 

J Richard Whatcoat.».- 106 

William M'Kendree 128 

" Enoch George 149 

Robert Richford Roberts 166 

Elijali Heddiijg 188 

John Emory 202 

Beverly Waugh 224 

Thomas Asbury Morris 264 

Leouidas Lent Hamline 288 

Edmund Storer Janes 308 

Osmon Oleander Baker 326 

Edward Raymond Ames 352 

Francis Burns 372 

Davis Wasgatt Clark 392 

Edward Thomson 424 

Calvin Kingsley 450 



PAGE 

John Wright Roberts 474 

Gilbert Haven 482 

Erastus Otis Haven 500 

Joshua Soule 514 

James Osgood Andrew 532 

John Early 544 

William Capers 556 

Henry Bidleman Bascom 574 

Enoch Mather Marvin 594 

David Seth Doggett 610 

Jacob Albright. 628 

John Seybert 639 

Joseph Long 642 

Richard Allen 648 

WiUiam Paul Quinn 658 

Morris Brown 668 

Edward Waters 676 

Philander Smith 724 

Willis Nazrey 754 



THE BISHOPS 



OF THE 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



A BRIEF HISTORICAL STATEMENT. 

THIS Clmrcli is a legitimate child of British Methodism. The 
gospel seed which the Rev. John Wesley sowed among the de- 
scendants of the exiled Teutonic population in Ireland was transplanted 
bj them to the soil of the ]N"ew World. The first centenary of Amer- 
ican Methodism was celebrated in the year 1866. The date was thus 
chosen because just a hundred years previously two Wesleyan local 
preachers, Philip Embury and Robert Strawbridge, began to preach in 
this country, the first in the city of JSTew York, and the latter in Mary- 
land. A few months later Thomas Webb, a British officer and Meth- 
odist local preacher, stationed at Albany, also preached in 'New York. 
Prolific was the seed they sowed. In 17Y3 the first Annual Conference 
was held in Philadelphia, with ten preachers representing 1,160 mem- 
bers. The first General Conference convened in Baltimore, on 
Christmas-day, 1784. There and then was organized the " Methodist 
Episcopal Church in the United States of America." At the same 
time was formally adopted a system of government, with Articles of 
Religion, Liturgy, Discipline, etc. 

This was the 'first Episcopal organization on the Western Hemi- 
sphere. 

The history from that time to the present it is the plan of this 
work to present in the lives of the men whom this organization has 
called to its episcopal office. These will tell of struggles and triumphs, 



22 Bishops of the M. E. Church. 

of dark hours of fear and bright days of victory, of wondrous pros- 
perity, of far-reaching branches touching every State and Territory, 
and of yet further growth to lands beyond the seas, and of the divine 
blessing there. 

To-day the Church embraces one hundred and one Annual Con- 
ferences and fifteen Missions. Twenty General Conference periodi- 
cals, and forty-three others, are published within the Church. Its edu- 
cational work is being performed by eight theological schools, thirty- 
eight colleges and universities, fourteen female colleges, and sixty-one 
Conference seminaries. In the United States there are 12,323 itinerant 
ministers, 12,323 local preachers, and 1,717,567 lay members. Whole 
number of missionaries and teachers in foreign lands and to the In- 
dians and foreign population in the United States and Territories, 
4,077 ; members in foreign and home mission Churches, 63,081. Con- 
tributions for the support of missions for the year 1881 : by the 
Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, $85,090 13 ; Parent Society, 
$521,793 70. For the year 1880 there are reported 21,093 Sunday- 
schools, 222,374 officers and teachers, and 1,602,331 scholars. 

But these figures afford only a partial representation of the great 
work this one branch of the Church has accomplished during her his- 
tory of less than one hundred years. She must certainly claim an in- 
terest in all other branches of Episcopal Methodism, and these alone 
would add to her numbers, until the itinerant ministry aggregate 
33,484, the local ministry 33,017, and the lay members 3,633,048. 
She is also the parent Church of the Episcopal Methodists in Canada 
as well as of many non-Episcopal Metliodists both in the United States 
and Canada, making a grand total of 132,360 itinerant and local 
preachers, 4,917,183 members, besides a vast number of stated hearers. 

Figures alone, however, will trace only a very limited account of 
the workings of a denomination whose spirit and life have been abroad 
in all the Churches, until her doctrines and experience have become 
the common heritage of almost all evangelical believers, and her polity 
lias influenced, more or less, the methods of every other branch of the 
Christian Church. 



John Wesley. 



BY EEV. J. W. HAMILTON. 



TOHK WESLEY, by right and with authority, was the first bish(.p 
of the United Societies in England and the Church in America 
called Methodist. His name does not stand in the list of bishoj^s, as 
commonly printed ; but that he so considered himself, and was so 
recognized by the Churches and people during his ministry, and is 
so designated in the official Minutes and general literature of the 
Church, it will be the purpose of this sketch to show. His biog- 
raphies and the lesser sketches of his life are so numerous that only 
the phases of his character and work which have a bearing upon his 
episcopal authority and relations will be here introduced. 

The Wesleys were the children of the Church of England. The 
father of John and Charles, in his adherence to both the doctrines and 
polity of the Establishment, was among the highest of the High Church 
party in Great Britain. And in his love for and adherence to the 
English Church, John was " his father's child." He very early in life 
became religiously inclined, and at the age of eight years was admitted 
by his father to partake of the sacrament. As he grew older he be- 
came a favorite with Churchmen, and particularly was his fellowship at 
Oxford marked by a most studious devotion to the Church. Dr. Rigg, 
in the preface to his book on " The Relations of John Wesley and of 
Wesleyan Methodism with the Church of England," says, "■ that so far 
and so long as Wesley was a mere English Churchman, he was among 
the most extreme of High Churchmen — was, in truth, an intolerant 
and ritualizing High Chnrchman." To use his own words, in speaking 
of himself, he " made antiquity a co-ordinate rule with Scripture." 
And it may be added, that if a divergence from the dogmas and gov- 
ernment of the Church can be shown to exist in his later life, never- 
theless the influence of both upon his mind and heart will also be 
clearly traceable throughout the whole history of his relations with the 
Methodism and Methodists of both worlds. So fully did he believe 



24 Methodist Bishops. 

in tlie truth of the main doctrines and perfection of the general goY- 
ernment of the Episcopal Church, that he sought only to make of the 
Methodist Societies a body of Christian believers, faithful and consist- 
ent in their adherence to both, without adopting the errors of either. 
In one of his latest letters a most pathetic appeal was addressed to one 
of the English bishops, pleading with him not to drive the Societies 
away from the Church by liis persecution ; for, said he, " The Meth- 
odists in general, my lord, are members of the Church of England. 
They hold all her doctrines, attend her service, and partake of her 
sacraments." 

There can be no well-sustained denial of the fact that Mr. Wesley 
intended his Societies to remain within the pale of the English 
Church. And it can be shown, that when the Methodists w^ere com- 
pelled to hold relations apart from the Church, he strictly adhered to 
her forms and ceremonies in assuming the responsibilities and per- 
forming the ministrations which, on account of her worldliness, her 
repudiation of his work, and the grov/th of the Methodist Societies, 
were providentially imposed upon him. The necessities of his work 
occasioned whatever change of views he held in relation to Church 
government, whatever the evidences may have been which came in to 
ccmse it. The State clergy were not adapted to serve a converted 
people, and hence his Societies were left without the sacraments. He 
was himself compelled to authorize persons to preach who were 
called of Grod from among his own followers, and to provide his peo- 
ple Avith an ordained ministry. 

In tracing the change of views which he experienced, and in 
giving some account of the ecclesiastical economy which he instituted, 
it will be necessary first to follow his work among the Societies in 
England, and next to discover his relations with the Societies and 
Church in America. 

John Wesley was, by his very nature, bold, aggressive, and self- 
reliant. He never waited for a leader, for by inheritance he was 
endowed with the rights and gifts of leadership himself. And so 
great were liis powers and tact in this direction that few of his fol- 
lowers ever questioned his authority in the matter. Born with an 
ambition adequate to his gifts, his first opportunities gave him full 
possession of his surroundings, and the first position among his 



John Wesley. 25 

associates. When lie joined the little company of Methodists at 
Oxford, they committed its management to him, and his father, in 
writing of this matter shortly afterward, said : " I hear my son John 
has the honor of being styled the ' father of the Jloly Club ! ' If it be 
so I am sure I must be the grandfather of it ; and I need not say that 
I had rather any of my sons should be so dignified and distinguished 
than to have the title of ' His Holiness.' " 

In every advance movement that Mr. Wesley made he was more 
inclined to a study of his convictions and of events than to listen to 
the advice of his more conservative or over-prudent friends. He was 
ordained a deacon in the English Church, September 19th, 1Y25, by 
Dr. Potter, at that time bishop of Oxford ; and March 17th, 1726, 
he was elected fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford; and September 
22d, 1728, he -was ordained an elder by the same bishop who had 
ordained him a deacon. When urged by his brother and father and 
friends to take the charge of a parish priest, he declined, and in his 
choice w^as sustained by the bishop, who indorsed the interpretation 
he had given to his ordination vows, which he claimed permitted him 
to preach without being confined to such a settlement. In this matter 
he evinced an independence of thought and action characteristic of the 
man throughout his whole life. He evidently was inclined to the 
work of an evangelist thus early in his ministry. 

When he came to Oeorgia a few years later he fell among the 
Moravians, and his ecclesiasticism began to give way to even a greater 
extent. "The character of his mind," says Mr. Watson, " was emi- 
nently practical ; he was in earnest, and he valued things just as they 
appeared to be adapted to promote the edification and salvation of 
those committed to his charge." He became favorably impressed 
with the Moravians, whose mode of proceeding in the election and 
ordination of a bishop carried him back, he says, lo those primitive 
times " when form and state were not ; but Paul, the tent-maker, 
and Peter, thQ fisherman, presided ; yet with demonstration of the 
Spirit and power." 

When he arrived in London, on his return from America, in 
September, 1738, his " future course of life," Mr. Watson tells us, 
" does not appear to have been shaped out in his mind," but " that he 
was averse to settle as a parish minister is certain ; and the man who 



26 Methodist Bishops. 

regarded the world as his parish must have had large views of 
usefulness." We find him, however, strongly disapproving of the 
practice of the High Church in rebaj)tizing persons who had been 
baptized by Dissenters. 

The first open difiiculty which Mr. Wesley met, and in which his 
churchly prejudices had to be overcome, grew out of a necessity 
for the employment of persons to assist him. " Mr. Charles Wesley 
had discouraged this from the beginning, and even he himself hesi- 
tated ; but with John the promotion of religion was the first concern, 
and church order the second, although inferior in consideration to that 
only. With Charles these views were often reversed." But John was 
cautioned by his prudent and godly mother, who said to him concern- 
ing the first young man who came to him for examination : " John, 
you know what my sentiments have been. You cannot suspect me of 
favoring readily any thing of this kind. But take care what you do 
with respect to that young man, for he is as surely called of God to 
preach as you are. Examine what have been the fruits of his preach- 
ing, and hear him also yourself." Taking her advice, he could not 
forbid him. As the laborers increased, the persecution from the 
Church came on, and Mr. Wesley was compelled to resign his fellow- 
ship at Oxford. The Societies had spread through various parts of 
the' kingdom, and ''a number of preachers, under the name of as- 
sistants and helpers, the former being superintendents of the latter, 
had been engaged in the work," and the necessity for some consult- 
ation and plan for carrying forward the good work led to the call- 
ing of the first Conference, which was held in June, 1744, in 
London. The superintendency, which was to lead directly to an 
episcopacy, here formally began. The oversight was with the two 
brothers, but more particularly with Mr. John Wesley. At this early 
period a separation of the Societies from the Church was contem- 
plated as a possible tl ing, but the Conference resolved, that " we do 
and will do all we can to prevent those consequences which are 
supposed to be likely to happen after our death ; but we cannot in 
good conscience neglect the present opportunity of saving souls while 
we live, for fear of consequences which may possibly happen after 
we are dead." So great was the opposition stirred up by this ear- 
nestly religious movement, that even Count Zinzendorf was enlisted 



John Wesley. 27 

against the Wesleys througli fear of tlieir influence upon the Mo- 
ravians, and he was induced to say that they would "soon run their 
heads against a walL" But Mr. Wesley only replied, by saying, " We 
will not, if we can help it." 

The government of the preachers and Societies had now been 
providentially assumed, and the mind of the superintendents was given 
to a study of the proper form of Church government to be employed. 
In the Minutes of the second Annual Conference, held August, 1745, 
we find the attention of the preachers called to the matter by the fol- 
lowing question : " Is episcopal, presbyterian, or independent church 
government most agreeable to reason ? " And evidently the opinion 
of Mr. Wesley was even then well formed, for the following answer is 
there given to the question : — 

"The plain^ origin of Church government seems to be this : Christ 
sends forth a person to preach the gospel, some of those who hear 
him repent and believe in Christ ; they then desire him to watch over 
them, to build them up in faith, and to guide their souls into paths of 
righteousness. Here, then, is an independent congregation ; subject to 
no pastor but their own, neither liable to be controlled in things 
spiritual by any other man or body of men whatever. But soon after, 
some from other parts, who were occasionally present while he was 
speaking in the name of the Lord, beseech him to come over and help 
them also. He complies, yet not till he confers with the wisest and 
holiest of his congregation, and with their consent appoints one who 
has gifts and grace to watch over his flock in his absence. If it please 
God to raise another flock in the new place before he leaves them, he 
does the same thing, appointing one whom God hath fitted for the 
work to watch over these souls also. In like manner in every place where 
it pleases God to gather a little flock by his word, he appoints one in 
his absence to take the oversight of the rest, to assist them as of the 
ability which God giveth. 

" These are deacons or servants of the Church, and they look upon 
their first pastor as the common father of all these congregations, and 
regard him in the same light, and esteem him still as the shepherd of 
their souls. These congregations are not strictly independent, as they 
depend upon one pastor, though not upon each other. As these con- 
gregations increase, and the deacons grow in years and grace, they need 



28 Methodist Bishops. 

other subordinate deacons and helpers, in respect of whom thej may 
be called presbyters or elders, as their father in the Lord may be called 
the bishop or overseer of them all." 

Mr. Watson, in speaking of this answer to the Conference question, 
says : " This passage is important, as it shows that from the first he 
regarded his preachers, when called out and devoted to the work, as, 
in respect of primitive antiquity and the universal Church, parallel to 
deacons and presbyters. He also then thought himself a scriptural 
bishop. Lord King's researches into antiquity served to confirm these 
sentiments, and corrected his former notion as to a distinction of orders." 

Certain it was that Mr. "Wesley had formed Societies, called out 
preachers, and originated a distinct religious community governed by 
its own laws. The Societies were one, but the center of union was 
first Mr. Wesley, then the Conference of preachers. " That he should 
feel compelled," says Mr. Watson, " to superintend every part of the 
system he had put into operation, and attend to every thing great or 
little which he conceived to accelerate or retard its motion, was the 
natural consequence, and became with him a matter of imperative con- 
science." The care of the Churches had thus come upon him, and 
was increasing. Still he did not go beyond the necessity of the hour. 
But he never hesitated to take the episcopal direction and superintend- 
ence of all his Societies, to appoint ordinances, and to ordain the men 
called of God to assist him in the ministry ; and he " refers to himself 
as the father and bishop of the whole of the Societies, while he tacitly 
compares his ' assistants ' to the ' ancient presbyters,' and his helpers 
' to the ancient deacons.' " 

He became more a bishop than any of his successors, by the right 
and authority of a Founder. In legislation he was the law, in judg- 
ment the judge, and in government the governor. And while the 
word of God was the law of truth and life, yet he became its inter- 
preter, with authority in all matters of polity and doctrine. Under 
his hand the United Societies were molded, while he was alive, into 
whatever of form they possessed in England, and into the Methodist 
Episcopal Church in America. The Methodist Church is, therefore, a 
child of the episcopate, rather than the episcopal ofiice a child of the 
Church. We will proceed to show that Mr. Wesley not only possessed 
the prerogatives of a bishop, but that he exercised the functions of 



John Wesley. "" 29 

his office more arbitrarily than any of his successors have ever ventured 
to do. 

In organizing the Societies in England he was permitted to direct 
in all matters of detail, as well as in the more general government of 
the Methodists throughout the kingdom. He was not only permitted, 
but was expected to provide for his people, as certainly as if there 
had been no parent Church in existence. To them there was none in 
existence. And called of God, as he was, to raise up a people who 
should honor him by their faith and good works, and spiritually 
endowed to be their minister, he was as duly qualified for this work 
as were the apostles in planting and training the Church in Asia 
Minor. In the matter of his relation to his Societies, he was as much 
an apostle as Paul when he went into Arabia, for he was not " an apos- 
tle of men, neither by man ; " neither went he up to Jerusalem to them 
which were apostles before him. And in his relations to the ceremo- 
nies of the existing Church John "Wesley was more an apostle than Paul 
at any time, for he was at least twice ordained of men, and that, too, 
in the Church of the succession. It is true that Church had one more 
" order," or " office," to confer ; but that " order," or " office," by vir- 
tue of his right as the father and founder of the United Societies and 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, he was entitled from the " exigency 
of necessity" to assume. The distinctions made between the words 
"order" and "office," as used to designate classes in the ministry, 
have occasioned much needless and profitless dispute, for what is an 
" order " but a conferred right to enjoy certain religious privileges, 
and to perform certain religious services ? Methodists have generally 
believed that Wesley taught " that no jparticular form of ecclesias- 
tical polity is of divine prescription, and that therefore the mode of 
governing the Church is left to its own discretion and the exigencies 
of time and place." That there were two orders only in the apostolic 
Church has not determined how many more or less there might be, or 
should be, in any other Church, for, as Dr. Stevens has well said, 
" Let us not be understood to say that the two orders of presbyters 
and deacons were permanently appointed by divine authority. If 
any section of the Church should find these orders or any other 
arrangements of Church polity incompatible with its circumstances, 
it can dispense with them and assume any arrangement whatever 



30 Methodist Bishops. 

whicli will secure its prosperity and not interfere with tlie word of 
God." 

It does not signify, if in the early Chnrch presbyter and bishops 
were synonymons terms for one and the same " order " and " office." 
They did not contimie synonymous terms, and do not now designate 
the same " order " or " office." Mosheim assures us that it was in the 
second century that the title of bishop began to be appropriated dis- 
tinctively to the elder who presided in the consultations or meetings 
of the presbyters of each Church. Ignatius is the first writer who 
notices this fact, but Jerome, in the fifth century, not only asserts the 
same thing, but, as Dr. Stevens adds in his comments upon the fact, 
" declares the manner in which the name bishop was changed from 
its indiscriminate application to all presbyters to its distinctive appli- 
cation to the presiding presbyter." And St. Augustine also tells us 
" the office of a bishop is above the office of a priest." 

'Nor, indeed, is it a matter for our consideration if there be found 
Churches which claim three " orders " of ministers by divine appoint- 
ment. If no satisfactory evidence exists for two divinely-appointed 
'• orders," wherefore need we trouble about the third one ? There are, 
however, three "orders" of ministers in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. It matters not whether we say '^ offices ^^ or '^07'ders;^^ but 
to call two of them " orders " and the third one an " office " is to make 
a distinction not ecclesiastically clear nor historically correct. That 
God appoints a man a deacon and then an elder, but not a bishop, the 
lowest of the Low Church Methodists will scarcely admit. That the 
Church appoints to all three " orders " the men called of God to the 
Christian ministry no one will readily deny. 

There is no more reason for calling the Wesleyan bishopric a Pres- 
byterian episcopacy than any other. In the Church of the Wesleys 
the " order " of deacon diflEers from the " order " of elder, but no more 
than the " office " or " order" of bishop differs from the order of pres- 
byter. The presbyter, as presbyter only, is never a bishop. To say a 
bishop is only Siprinceps inter pares — a president among equals — is 
misleading. He is not an eqtml among equals. 

Dr. Stillingfleet's analysis of the office of a bishop fails at a vital 
point. " The extending of any ministerial power," he says, " is not 
the appointing of any new office., because every minister of the gospel 



John Wesley. 31 

hatli a relation in actu primo " (primarily) " to the whole Church of 
God ; the restraint and enlargement of which power is subject to pos- 
itive determinations of prudence and conveniency ; and, therefore, if 
the Church see it ht for some men to have this power enlarged for 
better government in some, and restrained in others, that enlargement 
is the appointing no new office, but the making use of a power already 
enjoyed for the benefit of the Church of God." He assumes too 
much. "Every presbyter" does not "primarily and inherently pos- 
sess a capacity for" all as well as "the highest ministerial acts." 
^YQYj j>resbytery may possess such capacity, but each single j[>resbyteT 
does not. The presbyter, by act of the presbytery delegating such 
capacity to . him, may become qualified " quoad aptitudinem " (as to 
the capacity or fitness) "for the highest ministerial acts." Or in the 
" exigency of necessity " he may become the representative of a pres- 
bytery without even their ofiicial act or sanction at the time, and as 
such become qualified " for the highest ministerial acts." The right 
to ordain does not inhere in the power belonging to the presbyter as a 
presbyter alone, but to the jurisdictional power of the presbytery who 
in the matter represent " a Church constituted " or organized. 

Mr. Wesley did not ordain as a presbyter, but as presbyter pro- 
moted to an "office" or "order," having among its belongings the 
right and power to govern and the right to ordain. It was not com- 
petent for any one of Mr. Wesley's followers to ordain him as he 
ordained others to a superintendency or episcopacy in the Church. 
He came to his promotion by being the founder and father of the So- 
cieties and the Church ; others may come to equal position, as his suc- 
cessors came to succeed him, by appointment or election and ordination. 
The one advancement to the " office " or "order" is no less valid than 
the other, else how were it possible to create a new Church. And 
both are as valid as the advancement of the Bishop of London to his, 
" order " or " office " in the Church of England. And some less 
formal setting apart to the " office " may take the place of the ordi- 
nation, for the ordination is but the setting apart, and the setting apart 
is but the ordination to the duties and privileges of the " order " or 
" office." So far as we know, the promotion of Mr. Wesley to his 
episcopacy de facto was without the ceremonies of ordination at all. 
Had he never been ordained until his Societies had grown up around 



32 Methodist Bishops. 

him as numerously as they did, he might have been successively or- 
dained deacon, elder, and bishop by his own followers ; but satisfied 
with his ordinations to the two " orders " in the Establishment, they 
accepted his promotion to the episcopate as resulting from his rela- 
tions to his people. 

The founder of the Church may with the tacit or openly expressed 
consent of his followers rightfully appoint and ordain his successor, or 
his followers alone may elect and set apart his successor; else how 
were it possible to continue a new Church if the founder were to die ? 
Appointments by the founder, or elections by the Church, are only 
the human part of the divine selection of servants in the kingdom of 
Christ; either may conserve the interests of the Church, and carry 
forward the work of God in the earth. Ordination, then, is an appro- 
priate ecclesiastical ceremony, scripturally exampled, and to be re- 
tained in the Church as the public recognition or act of official pub- 
licity by which the " order" or " office " is brought to the man whom 
God has selected, through the Church, to exercise its functions. He 
does not officially knoAV, nor is the Church officially apprised, that he 
is the person selected thus to serve in the '' order " or " office," until the 
ordination has taken place. The classes in the ministry and the cere- 
monies attending their promotion in the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
handed down from the founder himself, fully warrant the admission 
of Dr. Nathan Bangs, more than haK a century ago, that " I consider 
it a simple statement of a matter of fact, that the Methodist Episcopal 
Church acknowledges three orders of ministers, deacons, elders, and 
bishops, which fact certainly no one can contradict." John Wesley 
was a bishop as well as a presbyter and a deacon in the Church of 
God. 

That he not only possessed the prerogatives, but exercised the 
functions of the office, will appear further from some account of 
the episcopal relations he continued to hold with his people, and 
the episcopal work he accomplished among them. In his sermon 
on " A Catholic Spirit," he says : " I believe the episcopal form of 
Church government to be scriptural and apostolical," " Here," says 
Mr. Watson, "he took his stand; and he proceeded to call forth 
preachers and set them apart, or ordain ihem^ to the sacred office, 
and to enlarge the work by their means, under the full conviction 



John Wesley. 33 

of liis acting under as clear a scriptural authority as could be 
pleaded by Cliurchmen for episcopacy, by the Presbyterians for 
presbytery, or by the Congregationalists for independency. He 
could make this scriptural appointment of ministers and ordinanoes 
without renouncing communion with the national Church, and there- 
fore he did not renounce it." 

We are told that "the duty of obeying bishops was considered 
at the very iirst Conference, that of 1Y44." At the Conference 
held in Leeds, May 6, 1755, the cpestion of separation from the 
Church was considered at length, and Mr. Charles Perronet and 
some others, for whom Mr. Wesley had great respect, urged him " to 
make full provision for the spiritual wants of his people, as being 
in fact in a state of real and. hopeless separation from the Church." 
And at the Conference of 1769 we have the first sketch of an eccles- 
iastical constitution for the body, and "from this time," says Mr. 
Watson, " he gave up all hope of a formal connection with even the 
pious clergy." It is a significant matter that at this Conference the 
first call was made for preachers to go to America. 

Mr. Wesley had always exercised absolute control over his Soci- 
eties, originating plans and amending forms of government, no more 
than administering discipline throughout the local organizations. He 
had drawn up the "General Pules," appointed the class-meetings, 
prayer-meetings, and watch-night meetings, and ordered Band Soci- 
eties. Where he found members of the Societies who " were either 
triflers or disorderly walkers," he said, " I make short work by cutting 
off all such at a stroke." And his presence in the public, as well as at 
the private, means of grace, was a very inspiration to his followers. 
He was equally the center of power and influence with the preachers. 
Dr. Stevens has said that " the j)roverbial conservatism of Methodism, 
notwithstanding its equally proverbial energy, has been owing almost 
as much to the impression which Wesley's personal character has 
left upon its ministry as to the discipline which he gave it." He 
presided in all the Conferences, examined the character of the min- 
isters, corrected the minutes after all debate was ended, decided the 
questions himself without a vote of the Conference, appointed the 
preachers to their charges, ordered pastoral visitation from house to 
house by his assistants and helpers, originated the circuit system, 



34 Methodist Bishops. 

licensed the helpers, led them into the fields to preach, prepared the 
Prayer Book and Liturgy, authorized the building of churches, wrote 
the deeds for the propei*ty, and gave the preachers authority to admin- 
ister the sacraments. And finally, the act of ordination, in connection 
with the appointment of the superintendents to the work in America, 
full}^ committed him to an assumption of the episcopacy. 

He remained a presbyter in the Church of England, but throughout 
the United Societies he was recognized as a bishop of rightful author- 
ity and with full powers. He not only ordained preachers for Amer- 
ica, but, as Mr. Daniels, in his " Illustrated History of Methodism," 
has said, "having taken the momentous first step, the second was 
comparatively easy, and in July, 1785, he set apart three well-tried 
preachers, John Pawson, Thomas Hanby, and Joseph Taylor, to min- 
ister in Scotland." And " a year afterward," according to Mr. Tyer- 
man, " at the Conference of 1786, he ordained Joshua Xeighley and 
Charles Atmore for Scotland ; William Warrener for Antigua, and 
William Hammet for E'ewfoundland. A year later five others were 
ordained ; in 1778, when Wesley was in Scotland, John Barber and 
Joseph Cownley received ordination at his hands ; and at the ensu- 
ing Conference seven others, including Alexander Mather, who was 
ordained to the ofiice not only of deacon and elder, but of sujperin- 
tendent. On Ash Wednesday, in 1789, Wesley ordained Henry 
Moore and Thomas Kankin ; and this, we believe, completes the list 
of those upon whom Mr. Wesley. laid his hands. 

'' All these ordinations were in private ; and many of them at four 
o'clock in the morninsr. Some of the favored ones were intended for 
Scotland, some for foreign missions, and a few, as Mather, Moore, and 
Rankin, were employed in England. In most instances, probably in 
all, they were ordained deacons on one day, and on the following 
received the ordination of elders, Wesley giving to each letters testi- 
monial." 

Little is known of the work of Superintendent Mather, but there 
can be no question but that Mr. Wesley desired a successor with 
whom should remain the leadership of the Societies after his death. 
" From Mr. Charles Wesley, who had become a family man, and had 
nearly given up traveling, he had no hope as a successor, and even then 
a further settlement would have been necessary, because he could not be 



John Wesley. 35 

expected long to survive liis brother ; " and, as Mr. Watson continues, 
'' lie directed liis attention to Mr. Fletcher, and warmly invited him to 
come forth into the work, and allow himself to be introduced by him 
to the Societies and preachers as their future head." The failure 
to secure the consent of Mr. Fletcher, but more certainly the rela- 
tion of the Societies to the State Church, determined against Mr. 
Wesley's wishes, and in favor of the present polity of the English 
Wesleyans. 

But if it has been found that John Wesley exercised the functions 
of the episcopal office in the English Societies, it will unquestionably 
be admitted that he was the first bishop of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in America. 

At the twenty-seventh yearly Conference, held in London, Au- 
gust 7, 1Y70, fifty circuits were reported, and the last in the list of 
the appointments printed in the " Minutes," reads : " Fiftieth, Amer- 
ica — Joseph Pilmoor, Richard Boardman, Robert Williams, John 
King." The first two named w^ere the first regular itinerant Method- 
ist preachers that ever came to these United States, and they came by 
the appointment of Mr. Wesley. The first new meeting-house built 
in this country was called Wesleys Chapel — John-street, ITew York — 
the first Societies organized were governed by the " General Rules " 
drawn up by Mr. Wesley in England, and the Band Societies were under 
the same directions that he had given to the organizations at home. 

In October, 1771, Francis Asbury and Richard Wright, hav- 
ing also been appointed by Mr. Wesley to America, landed in Phila- 
delphia, and in October of the year following, " Mr. Asbury received 
a letter from Mr. Wesley, appointing him to be the assistant in Amer- 
ica." Mr. Lee, in his " Short History of the Methodists," says, ''' Mr. 
Wesley, being the founder of the Society, was considered as the head ; 
and all the preachers were considered as helpers to Mr. Wesley in 
their different stations. In this country they formerly stood in three 
grades : 1. Helpers ; 2. Assistants ; 3. General Assistants. The 
helper was the young preacher in each circuit where there were gen- 
erally two preachers in a circuit. The assistant was the oldest preacher 
in the circuit, who had the charge of the young preacher, and of the 
business of the circuit. The general assistant was the preacher who 
had the particular charge of all the circuits, and of all the preachers, 



36 Methodist Bishops. 

and appointed all the preachers to their several circuits, and changed 
them as he judged to be necessary for the good of the preachers or 
the benefit of the people. His being called a general assistant also 
signified that he was to assist Mr. "Wesley in carrying on the work of 
God in a general way, without being confined to a particular circuit as 
another preacher." 

In the spring of the year 1Y73 Mr. Wesley sent two more 
preachers to America, namely, Thomas Eankin and George Shadford, 
and "from that time Mr. Kankin had the superintendency of the 
Methodist connection in America, and was styled "general assistant." 

The first Conference of all the traveling preachers in America was 
held on the 14th of July, 1YY3, in Philadelphia, and in the " Minutes " 
of that Conference appear the following questions and answers : — 

1. Ought not the authority of Mr. Wesley and the English Conference to 
extend to the preachers and j)eople in America as well as in Great Britain and 
Ireland ? 

Answer. Yes. 

2. Ought not the doctrine and discipline of the Methodists, as contained in 
the English "Minutes," to be the rule of our conduct, who labor in the congre- 
gation with Mr. Wesley ? 

A. Yes. 

3. If so, does it not follow that, if preachers deviate from the "Minutes" 
we can have no fellowship with them till they change their conduct ? 

A. Yes. 

Mr. Lee says, concerning this action, " The Methodists in America 
considered themselves as much under the direction of Mr. Wesley as 
T^ere the European Methodists." The same Conference put a stop to 
the printing of Mr. Wesley's books without his authority. 

When Mr. Rankin returned to England Mr. Asbury was appointed 
by Mr. Wesley the general assistant, which office he held until elected 
to be a bishop. 

When the separation of the colonies occurred, and their independ- 
ence of the mother country was assured as a result of the Revolution, 
Mr. Wesley planned the organization of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. ISTot only were his plans adopted, but his ordinations ac- 
cepted, and his elders and superintendents unanimously received by 
the new Church. And so far as becoming independent of Mr. Wes- 



John Wesley, 37 

ley, the Chnrcli voted the very opposite, as appears from the action of 
the Conference, which is printed in the " Minutes " as follows : — 

What can be done in order to the future union of the Methodists ? 

During the life of the Rev. Mr. Wesley ^e acknowledge ourselves his sons in 
the gospel, ready, in matters belonging to church government, to obey his com- 
mands. And we do engage, after his death, to do every thing that we judge 
consistent with the cause of religion in America, and the political interests of 
these States, to preserve and promote our union with tlie Methodists in Europe. 

It has been said that this action was reversed in 1Y87, wlien 
Mr. Wesley directed that Richard Whatcoat should be ordained a 
joint superintendent with Mr. Asbury. But it does not appear that 
his relations to the Church were wholly changed by the Conference 
refusing to approve of his directions in this single matter. Though 
the engagement given above was not printed in the next year's " Min- 
utes," Mr. Lee says it was " argued that Mr. Wesley, while in 
England, could not tell what man was qualified to govern us as well 
as we could, who were present, and were to be governed. We 
believed, also, that if Mr. Wesley were here himself he would be 
of the same opinion with us. We then wrote a long and loving 
letter to Mr. Wesley, and requested him to come over to America 
and visit his spiritual children." Moreover, it was feared, if Mr. 
Whatcoat was ordained a joint superintendent, that Mr. Wesley 
would likely recall Mr. Asbury, and it is probable that this fear, 
more than any diiference of opinion as to the qualifications of Mr. 
Whatcoat, influenced the action of the Conference, for what Mr. 
Wesley then recommended was afterward done by the Conference 
when Mr. Whatcoat did become a superintendent. And the follow- 
ing question and answer was afterward inserted in the annual "Min- 
utes " of the Conference of 1789 : — • 

Question. Who are the persons that exercise tlie episcopal office in the Meth- 
odist Church in Europe and America? 

Answer. John Wesley, Thomas Coke, and Francis Asbury, by regular order 
and succession. 

Mr. Wesley was so fully conscious of his relation to the Societies 
in England, and the Church in America, that his episcopal authority 
was maintained with an unrelenting " care of all the Churches " on his 



38 Methodist Bishops. 

mind and heart to the very last days of his life. And his most arbi- 
trary demands were almost, without exception, met with an unre- 
served submission and obedience upon the part of preachers and 
people, even when he was nearly ninety years of age. '' His genius 
for government," says Macaulay, " was not inferior to that of Riche- 
lieu." There were those who criticised his love of power. But he 
replied, " What is that power ? It is a power of admitting into and 
excluding from the Societies under my care ; of choosing and remov- 
ing stewards ; of receiving or not receiving helpers ; of appointing 
them when, where, and how to help me, and of desiring any of them 
to confer with me when I see good. And as it was merely in obe- 
dience to the providence of God and for the good of the people that I 
first accepted this power, which I never sought, so it is on the same 
consideration, not for profit, honor, or pleasure, that I use it at this 



" ' But several gentlemen are offended at your having so much 
power.' I did not seek any part of it ; but when it was come 
unawares, not daring to bury that talent, I used it to the best of my 
judgment. Yet I never was fond of it. I always did, and do now, 
bear it as my burden, the burden which God lays upon me, and, there- 
fore, I dare not lay it down. But if you can tell me any one, or any 
five men, to whom I may transfer this burden, who can and will do 
just as I do now, I will heartily thank both them and you." It thus 
appears that John Wesley, as we have shown, with the consent of his 
followers, and, as he believed, in the providence of God, was authorized 
to exercise the functions of the episcopal office both in England and 
America. 







l\ / 



cLii^? TmmmEM gc^ikie, li^.r 



Thomas Coke, 



BY REV. W. M. PUNSHON, D.D. 



THERE are many heroes whom the world is slow to acknowledge, 
partly because there is a general fallacy as to the conditions of 
real heroism, and partly because it requires for its manifestation an 
nnselhshness of patient endurance which can be approved only by time. 
But the principles of Christianity are gradually leavening the nations, 
and as the world gets wiser and better its admiration for the ancient 
objects of its hero-worship will be dispensed with prudent parsimony, 
and the names of men who have been great in goodness, who have 
spared neither effort nor sacrifice for the good of others, and who have 
been avowedly prompted by high and spiritual motives, will be the 
names which will not die. 

Thomas Coke was one of these men. He labored with no thought 
of fame, and prophesied no far-reaching result of his toil ; but though 
he knew it not, his life was making history ; and we of this generation 
are but offering some installment of our debt to the past by telling 
how he lived and died. 

At the confluence of the Honddu and the TJsk, whose united 
waters make a goodly river, stands the little Welsh town of Brecon, 
charmingly situated. It is not altogether out of the influence of mod- 
ern progress, but its ivy-covered chatemi, in ruins, and the remains of 
its Benedictine priory, link it with the romantio past, to which it 
seems rather to belong. Here, on the 9th of September, 174 Y, Thomas 
Coke was born. His father, Bartholomew Coke, was an apothecary, 
and also practiced medicine, according to the custom of those times. 
His later years were spent in the public service of his native town, of 
which he was several times chosen chief magistrate ; and his" personal, 
professional, and public virtues are honorably commemorated on a tab- 
let in the chancel of the Priory Church. The wife of this worthy 
alderman was Anne, daughter of Thomas Phillips, Esq., of a respecta- 
ble Breconshire family, after whom the future bishop was called. The 



42 Methodist Bishops. 

only trouble of their married life was in the death of two fair children ; 
and this was a sore trial to them, for thej dreaded a childless old age. 
Hence, on the birth of another son they were ready to say, We " have 
gotten a man from the Lord ; " and to the Lord they dedicated him in 
solemn covenant. The father was spared to witness his son's entry 
into priest's orders in the Chnrch of England, and died about a year 
after his ordination. The mother " pondered " in her heart the mys- 
terious way in which the Lord was leading her child ; and, herself fol- 
lowing the luminous cloud, became partaker of the rej^roach and glory 
of Methodism. 

The child thus given and consecrated grew up into boyhood dark- 
haired, low of stature, with a sunny countenance, sanguine hopes, and 
an impetuous temper ; and, although not precocious, gifted with fair 
mental powers. He was first trained at the " college " in Brecon, then 
under the rectorship of the Bev. Thomas Griffiths, and the advantages 
of this endowed grammar-school were not abused. In his sixteenth 
year he was sent to the University of Oxford, and entered as a gentle- 
man-commoner of Jesus College, where Welshmen " most do congre- 
gate," because it was founded by a former clergyman of Brecon, and 
appeals to the amor jpatricB of the natives of the Brincipality. The 
moral state of Oxford appears at this time to have been truly deplora- 
ble. A deistical taint had spread far and wide among the colleges ; and 
even among the tutors and professors — the accredited guardians of 
faith and morals — there was much of that looseness of thought which 
too frequently introduces looseness of life. Coke's own tutor was an 
infidel and a drunkard. With blameworthy flippancy and sad betrayal 
of trust he sought, though mainly when intoxicated, to undermine his 
pupil's faith in tl\e grand verities in which he had been carefully 
trained. Surrounded by influences like these, and with a nature which 
responded to every claim of good fellowship, it is no marvel that he 
yielded to the temptation of unhallowed pleasure and of fashionable 
folly. But even in the unseemly revel memory lingered regretfully 
upon soberer days, and conscience, the man within the man, was a 
stern and strong reprover. Hence he seemed as if he could not run, 
with his companions, " to the same excess of riot." Of course there was 
no happiness for him as long as this " war within " should last. He 
had loosed off from his ancestral moorings, and was now drifting with 



Thomas Coke. 43 

no anchorage for the soul. He had abandoned his old creed, but had 
found no rest in a system of negations. It is a fearful thing to destroy 
even a blind trust in a blind divinity. To expel the old without intro- 
ducing the new and the better faith is the refinement of cruelty. Any 
God, even the idol of Micah, is better than none. In this state of sor- 
rowful indecision it happened to Thomas Coke to spend a vacation 
with a clergyman of some standing in the Principality, from whose lips 
he listened to a discourse on the prominent truths of Christianity, 
written in a style so cogent and sprightly, and dehvered with so much 
apparent heartiness, as greatly to impress his mind. After service was 
over he remarked upon the discourse to his friend, spoke of the glow 
of feeling which it had kindled within him, and proceeded to refer to 
the mental conflicts of the past few months, when, to his surprise and 
disgust, the clergyman smiled at his doubts, assured him that what he 
had heard from the pulpit was a purely professional utterance, and 
that he himself did not believe a word of the truth which he had 
so zealously proclaimed. This discovery of perfidious dealing, 
which might have hardened many a man in skepticism, produced in 
the mind of Coke the revulsion of an honest nature against an acted 
lie. He saw the dishonesty of infidelity which could thus " make war 
upon the Lamb '' in robes on which the cross was broidered, and he 
thenceforward determined thoroughly to investigate the matter, and 
not to rest until he was able to discover some true resting-place for his 
bewildered intellect and heart. At this crisis the discourses of Bishop 
Sherlock providentially fell into his hands. He read them with atten- 
tion and avidity, and the reading was blessed to the removal of the 
films from his eyes. So thoroughly was he convinced of the objective 
truth of Christianity that from that moment to the day of his death 
he never doubted again. The moral education underlying all these 
initial difficulties was being all the while carried on. It has sometimes 
been said, that " he who ne'er doubted ne'er believed ; " and it is cer- 
tain that he to whom these mental confiicts are familiar, who lias grap- 
pled with these agitating problems, and has been led, painfully but 
surely, from doubt to faith, will be likely to hold his faith more firmly 
than he in whom it was cradled, and who has grown up into its pro- 
fession, as of an heir-loom which his father had bequeathed. 

In 1768 Coke finished his course at Oxford, taking his bachelor's 



44 Methodist Bishops. 

degree, and for the next few years resided in Brecon, filling the mu- 
nicipal offices which had become almost hereditary in his family, until 
at twenty-five years of age he was elected chief magistrate of the bor- 
ough. Here, also, we see the overrulings of " the divinity which 
shapes our ends " in the preparation for that life of usefulness which 
was before him. In the college he had studied books, in the court he 
studied men. Xo teaching for practical purposes is so valuable as the 
rough contact with common men. It rounds off the angles of a man, 
clears away the bookish notions which are sometimes too exalted for 
common sense, and fits him for the work of a world where "tnen^ wail- 
ing, working, striving, suffering, are the chief factors after all. More- 
over, some knowledge of the law, and some practice in the art of pub- 
lic speaking, were helpful elements in the formation of the character, 
and tended to make him ready of speech and skilKul in administration. 
Man cannot forecast the influence of apparent trifles, but God sees the 
end from the beginning. 

During these years in Brecon, Coke never lost the idea of ultimately 
" entering the Church," as taking orders in the Episcopalian ministry 
is somewhat loosely called. His official position in the town had ena- 
bled him to render aid to the member for the borough in Parliament, 
and this gentleman, one of the Morgan family, (which, with a few ex- 
ceptions, has furnished a representative to Brecon almost ever since,) 
encouraged him to ex]3ect preferment through his influence, and hinted 
at a prebendal stall in Worcester Cathedral as the most likely embodi- 
ment of his gratitude. Some county magnate of higher rank was yet 
more profuse in his promises, but they were promises only, and as the 
conviction of duty grew within him he obtained a curacy at South 
Petherton, a small country town in Somersetshire, was ordained deacon 
in 1Y70, and priest in lYYl, taking the degree of Master of Arts in the 
former year, and proceeding to the degree of Doctor of Civil Law in 
1775. 

His ordination to the Christian ministry preceded his conversion. 
He felt, almost to agony, the solemnity of the vows which he had taken, 
and was faithful to his light, an honest, sincere, self-denying teacher. 
He entered the profession which he had chosen (it was not yet a 
vocation to which he felt himseK divinely called) with no unworthy 
motives, either of ambition or desire for wealth. The perusal of such 



Thomas Coke. 45 

works as " Witlierspoon on Regeneration " had partially cleared his 
mind for the reception of the reality of truth, but he had not experi- 
enced its saving power ; yet from the first he was an earnest and 
zealons preacher, handling evangelical topics, and throwing over them 
the glow of a warm eloquence which attracted many hearers. Two of 
these South Petherton sermons, in their original manuscripts, are in 
my possession. One, from the text Matt, xiii, 43, seems to have been 
so much of a favorite with him that he delivered it twice from the 
same pulpit at an interval of tw^o years. The other is on the inimita- 
ble parable of the Prodigal Son. They show that he was struggling 
into freedom, and when a man is determined to be spiritually free, 
God will see to it that he shall have no lack of helpers in his brave 
endeavor. The church filled so rapidly under his ministry that he ap- 
plied to the vestry to erect a gallery at the expense of the parish. 
The officials refused his request ; so, with characteristic zeal, he paid 
for its erection himself. This was the first fair springing of that 
noble liberality which became a ruling passion in his soul, and by 
which he was prompted to lay successive fortunes at the feet of his 
Master. The astonished farmers, whose souls were too small to com- 
prehend this self-devotion, were amazed and suspicious ; some sapient 
shake-the-head covertly whispered " Methodism ;" the "lewd fellows 
of the baser sort " took up the whisper and swelled it into a cry ; and 
so — Sauls among the pro23hets, but not of stature so goodly — the village 
rabble baptized him into Methodism before he knew who the " people 
called Methodists " were. 

Thomas Maxfield, the first Methodist lay preacher, had been 
ordained by the Bishop of Derry to assist Mr. Wesley, " that he might 
not work himself to death." He had subsequently separated himself 
from Mr. Wesley and fixed his residence in Somersetshire, retaining, 
however, his love of the doctrines of evangelical Christianity. The 
report of Methodism circulated against the young clergyman at once 
inclined the love of this good man to go out after the South Petherton 
curate. He sought an interview, and instructed the young Apollos in 
the " way of God more perfectly." By repeated conversations with 
this true friend, and by the reading of Alleine's " Alarm," which 
affected his heart, as Sherlock's Discourses had satisfied his under- 
standing, Dr. Coke was led into the light, and became an eminent 



46 Methodist Bishops. 



seeker for the salvation of God. He waited for God, however, not in 



folding of hands, bnt in redoubled effort and service. He established 
preaching throughout his parish, and it was in one of his own cottage 
services that he entered into the liberty of the gospel, and was intro- 
duced to the conscious joy which is the privilege of those who believe. 

From this time his ministry was more bold and notable than ever. 
His manuscripts, which had been interlined as the light dawned with 
passages more intensely evangelical, or more direct in appeal, were, for 
the most part, forsaken, and he went bravely forward as a master in 
Israel. 

But there were many adversaries. He was irregular. He preached 
without a book. He received "publicans and sinners." He aimed at 
the fifth rib. What could be the lot of such a man but hinderance and 
insult ? His brother clergymen complained ; the squirarchy had 
twinges of face and conscience and were offended ; the choir — fruitful 
seed of discord strangely growing out of harmony — resented the intro- 
duction of hymns ; the zeal of the man discomposed the genteel, and 
his directness startled the profane among his hearers. Bishops listened 
to their recital of the parish grievances, but were either half in sym- 
pathy with the zealous preacher, or were disposed to regard him as 
incorrigible ; so the rector was ]3ersuaded to dismiss him, which he did 
abruptly on a Sabbath without notice, and in the presence of the peo- 
ple ; the church bells chimed him out of doors, and so South Pether- 
ton rid itself of the " pestilent fellow." 

Meanwhile God was preparing for him a more congenial ecclesias- 
tical home. In Wesley's Journal, under the date of August 18th, 
1776, there is the following entry : " I preached at Taunton, and after- 
ward went with Mr. Brown to Kingston, where I found a clergyman, 
Dr. Coke, late a gentleman-commoner of Jesus College, in Oxford, 
who came twenty miles on purpose [to meet me.] I had much con- 
versation with him, and a union then began which, I trust, shall 
never end." In the Journal of August 19th, 1777, there is this further 
entry : "I went forward to Taunton with Dr. Coke, who, being dis- 
missed from his curacy, has bidden adieu to his honorable name, and is 
determined to cast in his lot with us." This fixes the date of the dis- 
missal from South Petherton, about which there has been some doubt, 
as having occurred some time in the spring of 1777. After the first 



Thomas Coke. 47 

interview Mr. Wesley advised him to return to liis parish, " doing all 
the good he could, visiting from house to house, omitting no part of 
his clerical duty, and avoiding every reasonable ground of offense." 
Faith can afford to wait, knowing that " he that believeth shall not 
make haste." On this wise counsel Coke acted until his dismissal from 
his curacy, for two Sabbaths after which he preached in the church-yard. 
Then was the threat of open opposition, and hampers of stones were 
gathered by which it w^as intended to do him grievous hurt, if not to 
re-enact the martyrdom of Stephen ; but Cod raised up for him some 
influential friends, so that the cowardice which always waits upon 
cruelty dared not " cast the first stone." Thus was he enabled to 
testify that he was not ashamed of the " re23roach of Christ," and to 
depart from the place which had become so eventful in his history 
with the consoling thought, " Liberavi animam meam." 

The Conference of 177Y was held in Bristol ; Dr. Coke was present 
and there became acquainted with Benson and other Methodist worthies, 
and especially with John Fletcher, whom, above all men, he had longed 
to know. He became more deeply impressed by their singleness of 
purpose and by their transparent honesty. He found he had discovered 
men who were hfted as by an inspiration above common cares and aims, 
and whose life-work involved the destiny of millions ; and, following 
out the newly-awakened impulses of the regenerate soul, he determined 
at all hazards to cast in his lot with these. Mr. Wesley, wdth charac- 
teristic sagacity, seems to have given him an interval in which to count 
the cost ; or, perhaps, knowing human nature, and aware that even then 
flattering offers of preferment were made to him from high quarters, 
he wished to test the fidelity of the new ally. Hence his name does 
not appear on the Minutes of Conference until the following year, 
although he was doubtless the companion of many of those evangelistic 
journeys which made up so large a portion of Wesley's life and work. 
From the first his preaching was popular among the London Societies 
and congregations. At the Foundery, in West-street, Seven Dials, and 
in other places of Methodist resort, the places became too strait for the 
w^orshipers, so that he went into the open air, and in many of the fields 
around the metropolis — all covered with mansions, now — might be 
seen the handsome young clergyman, short of stature but great in 
soul and purpose, preaching in gown and cassock to listening multi- 



48 Methodist Bishops. 

tudes the iin searchable riches of Christ. If his style had not the calra 
logical persuasiveness of Wesley's, if he was incapable of those oS^iag- 
ara bnrsts of impassioned eloquence which often poured from the full- 
ness of Whitefield's soul, there were a simphcity and winsomeness 
about his preaching which had an attraction and a power of their own. 

Surely the providence of God was working, in raising up just at 
this juncture so able a helper for the cause and work of Methodism. 
Whitefield, after a course flame-bright as that of a seraph, had gone 
from iSTewburyport to heaven, as in a chariot of fire. Charles Wesley 
was in comparative retirement, confining his labors almost entirely to 
London and Bristol, and haunted, moreover, by many misgivings as to 
the " whereunto " of his more active brother. John Wesley was up- 
ward of eighty years old, and needed a man of counsel in whom his 
soul could surely trust as his right hand. Fletcher had no administra- 
tive skill. He was the ]\Ioses whose ''face shone," tender in S23irit, and 
mighty in prayer. There wanted a Joshua to lead the hosts when they 
should need a leader, and in the meantime to be helj^er, and often rep- 
resentative, of the captain of the Lord. Thomas Coke became that 
man, for, as always in God's ripening plans, when the hour struck the 
man for its duty was ready. 

Coke's journeys became as extensive, and almost as acceptable, as 
Wesley's. He was incessantly engaged in all parts of the country. 
Ireland became familiar to him as home. He presided at the first 
Irish Conference, held in 1782, and continued to preside, with occa- 
sional intermission, during his whole life. Every shire in England, 
and not a few of its secluded liamlets, were visited on the errand of 
mercy. Sometimes persecution was coarse and cruel, and Dr. Coke 
had his share of it. Sometimes there was the sunshine of recompense 
for former wrong. In one of his tours South Petherton lay in his 
way. Eeflection had succeeded to excitement, and the influence of 
the gentle life of their sometime curate had made itself gradually felt. 
The people received him as an angel of God, and even the rulers of 
the beKry atoned for their former turbulency. " We chimed him out," 
they said ; " now we will ring him in." 

Dr. Coke's relation to Wesley, his speedy insight into Methodist 
affairs, the heartiness with which he made them his own, his indefati- 
gable industry, and a certain looking to the future which personal ambi- 



Thomas Coke. 49 

tion may or may not have mi consciously prompted, combined to extend 
and consolidate the influence which he was rapidly acquiring, though 
there were not wanting the jealousies which were to some extent 
natural when veterans saw the latest recruit in counsel preferred to 
them. The celebrated '' Deed of Declaration," the legal instrument 
which perpetuated Methodism as a coherent system, was suggested by 
Dr. Coke, who had obtained legal opinion of the danger both to union 
and property which the indefiniteness of the primitive arrangements 
threatened. The Conference of 1782 saw this danger. The perpe- 
tuit}^ of Methodism rested upon the frail life of a man on whose head 
were the snows of eighty winters. It was a crisis as grave, and as di- 
vinely averted, as when the Church in the wilderness floated in the 
fragile ark of bulrushes upon the waters of the Nile. The Deed, 
which defined the Conference and limited it in its legal aspect to one 
hundred ministers, was drawn up and enrolled in Chancery, and in its 
initiation Dr. Coke took a prominent part. As his name w^as included 
in " the Hundred," some of those who were omitted conceived that 
they owed to the doctor's influence this imaginary mark of disrespect ; 
and as human nature is ever willing to believe evil, he suffered re- 
proach and loss in this regard. "Wesley was not slow to vindicate the 
injured. " 'Non vult, non potuit," was his epigrammatic reply to the in- 
sinuation — "He would not if he could, and he could not if he would" — 
and then emphatically declares, '' In naming these preachers I had no 
adviser." Coke's views seem, indeed, to have been at once sagacious 
and liberal, and for his act and part in procuring this charter of incor- 
poration he deserves the gratitude of posterity, and is enrolled among 
the prescient statesmen of the Methodist Church. 

True religion expands the sympathies. Disdaining all proscription 
of tinge or feature, overleaping geographical boundaries, asking no 
introduction but distress — Christianity, in her truest expressions, is 
essentially missionary in her character. Hence the hearts which are 
influenced by the indwelling love of Christ must be catholic. They 
would fain, in their breadth of charity, make the world a neighbor- 
hood, and win it, in its fullness, for Christ. 

Circumstances were now converging to introduce Dr. Coke to the 
great missionary work of his life. The original English colonists on 
the Western Continent, re-enforced by new accessions, had grown into 



50 Methodist Bishops. 

the bulk of an empire. The earth had been subdued and replenished. 
The wilderness had become a garden, and fair cities had arisen upon 
the banks of rivers previously unknown to song. The ministry of 
Whitefield, exercised at intervals between 1738 and his death, in 17Y0, 
had stirred the land as with the blast of a clarion ; but the impression 
was too often transitory, arising from the absence of any attempt to 
organize into Churches those who had been impressed and saved. Mr. 
Wesley's idea of gathering together small companies of those who be- 
lieved, for mutual help and comfort, was yet to supply this lack in 
America, as it had so largely done in England. The beginnings were 
obscure and lowly. God magnifies his doings by the smallness of the 
events which he uses as his instruments. " Her ?tap was to light on a 
part of the field belonging to Boaz," says the touching narrative of 
Ruth ; but from that chance gleaning in the harvest-field sprang the 
sweet Psalmist of Israel, and the blessed Redeemer, " great David's 
greater Son." There is a hamlet in the west of Ireland called Court 
Mattress, where some Germans from the Palatinate had settled in the 
reign of Queen Anne. Among this community — an oasis in a desert, 
so far as good manners were concerned — Mr. Wesley on one of his 
journeys found a young man called Philip Embury, whom he licensed 
as a local preacher. This young man emigrated to America, and, 
stirred, as is well known, by Barbara Heck, like another Deborah stim- 
ulating Barak to heroism, he, the carpenter, spoke in his own house to 
a congreo^ation of five persons, of the grace and truth of Him of whom 
they said of old, " Is not this the carpenter's son ? " This was the first 
Methodist sermon ever preached in America. The five who composed 
the congregation were the first Methodist Society, and the germ of 
one of the grandest associated developments of Christianity which the 
world has ever seen. Captain AYebb, then lieutenant in the British 
army, heard, on coming into quarters at Albany, of the little flock of 
Kew York Methodists. He "assayed to join himself to them," though 
at first an object of suspicion, and under his preaching the congrega- 
tions increased so rapidly that the room became too small. A rigging- 
loft was taken, and in turn deserted ; two years afterward the first 
American Methodist chapel was built, and in 1769 Mr. Wesley sent, 
from '• one of the most loving Conferences ever held," Richard Board- 
man and Joseph Pihnoor "to help our brethren in America." "We 



Thomas Coke. 51 

determined," Scays Wesley, " to send tliem fifty pounds as a token of our 
brotherly love ;'' let it stand as an everlasting memorial to the Churches ! 
Surely it is worthy of a record, that the first Methodist missionary col- 
lection was made among themselves hy the Methodist preachers^ who 
out of their poverty showed the abundance of their liberality, and sent 
it to the infant Church across the ocean " by the hands of Barnabas 
and Saul." On the arrival of these pioneer missionaries they were 
surprised to find a Society of a hundred members, great teachableness, 
and a hunger of heart for the word ''the like of which they never saw 
before." In the following year, the year of Whitefi eld's death — such 
is the divine law of compensation— Francis Asbury landed on the 
American continent, the " rex atque sacerdos " of American Method- 
ism, its most affluent benefactor, and its most historic name. The 
record of this remarkable man will be drawn by another hand, but it 
is impossible to refrain, in passing, from a tribute of exceeding rever- 
ence to that master-spirit, so firm, so unselfish, so devoted, so grandly 
proportioned in differing elements of character ; so full of light, be- 
cause he brought down the glory of the mount on w^hich he often lin- 
gered ; so full of love, because, like John, his favorite resting-place was 
where he could feel the beating of the Saviour's heart. The Churches 
of all lands, and of all time, ought to glorify God in him. 

The sky grew dark shortly after Asbury's arrival ; the portents of the 
tempest gathered, and the struggle began which issued in the dismem- 
berment of the Colonies from England, and the recognition of their 
independence as the United States of America. These political 
changes, and the distraction to which they gave rise, had a notable 
influence upon the religious life of the country, and many controver- 
sies which had arisen were summarily settled by the stern logic of 
events. 

Mr. Wesley, as is well known, expressed himself strongly in the 
'' Calm Address to the Colonists " in opposition to the Revolutionary 
movement ; and the English preachers in America, most of whom were 
in sympathy with his views, became objects of popular odium, and were 
regarded as tools of a despotic powder. Hence, as the feeling intensified, 
they were obliged, being in peril of their lives, to retreat to England. 
Asbury alone remained, "single, but undismayed." If he had fled 
with the others, or if he had been a less skillful pilot, or, rather, we 



52 Methodist Bishops. 

ought to saj, a less single-ejed and spiritual man, Methodism might 
have perished in the hour of storm. But there was an eye over it 
which never slumbered ; and so by the Lord's inspiration he was like 
Caleb, of "another spirit" than his brethren. At last the War of the 
Bevolution was over, and the great American Bepublic took its place 
among the powers of the world. There was something royal in the 
confession of King George III., as he received the credentials of the 
newly-appointed Minister of the United States, '' I was the last man 
in my kingdom to acknowledge your independence, and I will be the 
last to violate it." The war had not swept over the continent without 
disastrous results to those who were successful. These results were 
seen not only in desolated hearths and an impoverished exchequer, but 
in scattered Churches and ruined altars, and as one collateral result the 
" Church of England in America had virtually ceased to be." The 
Methodist Societies, which had now become numerous, were deprived 
by the flight of the clergy of the sacraments of the Churcli. There 
were no Episcopalian clergymen to administer them, and they could 
only enter the Presbyterian communion by forsaking their own. 
"Who can wonder, then, that the people became impatient of the re- 
straints which, out of deference to Mr. Wesley and Mr. Asbury, they 
had long submitted to ? Prejudice melted in the presence of distress, 
and sacerdotalism, when there was hunger for the refreshing ordinances 
of the Lord's house, was regarded as a mediaeval folly. Hence arose 
the problem of Church government which Wesley had foreseen and 
pondered, and which he was now to essay to solve. 

The Founder of Methodism had no new views to promulgate. 
The convictions which he was now to embody in daring spiritual ac- 
tion had been his cherished principles for years. " Lord King's Ac- 
count of the Primitive Church convinced me many years ago that 
bishops and presbyters are the same order, and consequently have the 
same right to ordain." In this terse sentence he justified the action 
which, in the exigency, he deemed it right to take in order to supply 
the famine of a nation which cried aloud for the bread and for the "cup 
of blessing," as well as for the consolidation of church order in their 
midst. Any hesitation which he might feel arose from the gravity of 
the occasion, from questions of religious expediency, and from his 
habitual practice to seek counsel and guidance in prayer. The lawful- 



Thomas Coke. 53 

ness of separation from tlie Cliurcli of England in America was not in 
question, for that Clmrcli had no existence ; and hence the simple 
inquiry was, whether there were to be scattered Societies with no bond 
of cohesion, or a church polity which should be rooted and should 
endure. All Wesleyan convictions as well as traditions were in favor 
of a government which should be episcopal in essence if not in name. 
In Dr. Coke he thought he had found one likely to become a true 
scriptural episcopos, and slowly but surely arrived at the conviction 
that it was his duty to ordain him Superintendent of the Churches in 
America. 

In February, 1Y84, Coke was startled in the little study at City 
Road, wdiich so many American pilgrims have visited, by the divulg- 
ing of the determined purpose. Wesley gave his reasons and asked 
Coke to ponder them. He reviewed the Ke volution and its results, 
the abolition of the Established Church in America, the anxious and 
suffering Societies as " sheep having no shepherd," their desire for the 
sacraments, the appeals which had reached him both from preachers 
and people to provide for this acknowledged need, his own conviction 
that a presbyter, being analogous to a bishop, had an equal right to or- 
dain, (the practice of the Church at Alexandria for two hundred years,) 
and then asked Dr. Coke to accept ordination at his hands. Certain 
uncandid writers have stated that the request for ordination came from 
Coke, and have censured his ambition pretty freely. This is not the 
fact. Coke was bewildered, almost dismayed, at the proposal, and it was 
not until after two months' study of the Bible, and those records of the 
Primitive Church which can be gathered from the writings of the Fa- 
thers, that he intimated his conviction of the soundness of the argu- 
ment, and his willingness to accept the office of " overseer and ruler." 
At the Conference, which was held in Leeds, the matter was brought 
forward and referred to a select committee, every man of whom was in 
the beginning opposed to it ; but Fletcher indorsed it heartily, and it 
ultimately received unanimous approval. 

Quietly, without ostentation, but with sober and earnest realization 
of the divine presence and blessing, was the ceremony performed. The 
Rev. Mr. Creighton, an ordained clergyman, who was one of Mr. Wes- 
ley's helpers, joined Dr. Coke and Mr. Wesley in the setting apart of 
Messrs. Whatcoat and Yasey as presbyters for America ; and then, in 



54 Methodist Bishops. 

the very room in which Asbiiiy had offered for service in America, 
Mr. Wesley ordained Dr. Coke for the office of Superintendent "by 
the imposition of hands and prayer." Three weeks afterward Dr. 
Coke was on the ocean, with his companions, on the way to his new 
diocese of a continent. The record of his voyage is extant in a Jour- 
nal which he diligently kept, and which shows how assiduously he 
improved his time, both in personal improvement and in efforts for 
the good of others. He landed in 'New York on the 3d of November, 
and on the 14th, when preaching somewhere in the State of Delaware, a 
plain, robust man stepped up to him in the pulpit after the sermon, and 
kissed him. This he thought " could be no other than Asbury," and 
on this wise was the first meeting of these two men — a meeting 
grander in its issues than when, amid waving banners and martial 
music, monarchs greeted each other on the "Field of the Cloth of 
Gold." Coke was furnished with two documents : 1. Letters of Ordi- 
nation ; and, 2. A Circular Letter from Mr. Wesley to the Societies in 
the United States. A conference was hastily summoned in the City 
of Baltimore; sixty out of the eighty-three preachers attended, to 
whom the whole plan was submitted, and who indorsed it by unani- 
mous vote. Asbury, who had at first hesitated and been " shocked " 
at the proposal, was brought, by thought and prayer, to believe that it 
was of God. He was, therefore, ordained by Dr. Coke to the office 
of Superintendent, having been previously ordained deacon and 
elder. Twelve other preachers received elders' ordination, and thus 
the organization of that vast community was completed. The effect 
of that day's doings upon the social and religious life of a new world 
only eternity can adequately unfold. 

While it was beyond doubt Mr. Wesley's intention to establish 
episcopacy in America, and while he had no scruples as to the script- 
ural lawfulness of his course, he did not authorize the assumption of 
the title of bishop ; but as the office existed, the name could not long be 
withheld, and although Dr. Coke, in sanctioning its use, may have ex- 
ceeded his powers, and perhaps been influenced by unconscious ambition 
or forecasting wisdom, it was rendered necessary by the progress of 
events; and as* we review all these incidents of a long-past age we 
mark how wonderfully men were led in a way they knew not to work 
for and with God. Time has given to their work its magnificent 



TnoMAs Coke. 55 

attestation, and the years have confirmed it with the visible benediction 
of Heaven. 

Coke's Journal tells artlessly of the nature, variety, and extent of 
the missionarj^ bishop's labors. When he was expected in the country, 
Asbury had arranged for him " a little tour of eight hundred miles," 
and during the five months of his stay on this first visit he had an ex- 
perience of incessant and romantic toil. Narrow escapes by freshet and 
fiood, now nearly carried away by a swollen torrent, now wandering 
helplessly for hours amid a pathless wilderness of trees ; wet to the 
skin full oft, and his saddle-bags drenched with rain ; riding through 
morasses ; sleeping at way-side shanties, sometimes three in a bed ; in 
peril because of his denunciations of slavery, "a high-headed lady," as 
he calls her, having offered fifty pounds to the rowdies if they would 
flog the little doctor as he left the barn ; preaching every-where, at all 
hours, and in all sorts of places ; presiding at conferences, administer- 
ing the sacraments, delivering a funeral sermon in a part of the coun- 
try where such things were so popular that a funeral sermon was 
preached over every one who died, " except the blacks," who, being chat- 
tels, were without benefit of clergy ; begging money for literary insti- 
tutions, such as Cokesbury College ; appealing to men in print ; codify- 
ing and publishing the first Book of Discipline — it is a wonderful and 
stimulating story of episcopal travel. 

The doctor returned to England in the month of June. He says 
he had not for many years felt himself so effeminate as in parting 
from the prea?hers ; to which Asbury's Journal gives the counterpart 
record, " We parted with heavy hearts." He took farewell of the Con- 
ference on the 3d of the month, and a vessel with the well-omened 
name of the " Olive Branch " bore him swiftly to his native shores. 

While the results of the great experiment were being so success- 
fully worked out in the United States, there were those in England who 
gathered up the garments of their Churchmanship and refused to look 
cordially on any movement which did good to men in an irregular way. 
There was a misgiving in many minds that there might be a renewal 
of the experiment of separate organization in England ; and hence, 
though Dr. Coke had the comfort of John Wesley's approval and sup- 
port, he had to contend with the oj)position of his warm-hearted, 
sacramentarian, but gloriously inconsistent brother. Charles Wesley 



56 Methodist Bishops. 

lacked liis brother's prescience and "ecumenical grandeur of mind." 
'No man among the early Methodists was so rigid a Churchman in 
theory, and so arrant a Dissenter in practice. He systematically ^do- 
lated the canons, the obligation of which he upheld with forceful em- 
phasis of pen and tongue. He would argue and suffer for " apostol- 
ical succession," but lampooned the " licensed servants of the State " 
without mercy, speaking of them as 

"Eager each the whole to engross, 

As Churchmen never satisfied, 
First they nail Him to the cross. 

And then the spoils divide." 

When he learned that his brother had ordained Coke a bishop he 
broke out into the wailing, " I have lived on earth too long, who have 
lived to see this evil day." On Coke's return to England he was 
assailed privately by Charles Wesley's sarcastic wit, and publicly by 
" Strictures " on his ordination sermon at Baltimore, from Charles 
Wesley's pen. To this public assault the doctor deemed it necessary 
to make a pubHc answer. The main charges of Charles Wesley's pam- 
phlet were four. There was an allusion in the sermon to alleged dis- 
advantages in a union of Church and State. On this was founded an 
accusation that he condemned the Constitution of his country. He in- 
dignantly denies the charge, but takes occasion to observe that the 
Constitution would be more perfect in its kind if there were the disso- 
ciation of that equivocal alliance. A second accusation was, that he 
vilified his brethren with the names of parasites and hirelings. To 
this he rejoined, that the persons he described never were his brethren, 
and that in general, with noticeable exceptions, " at whose feet I should 
think it an honor to sit," " they were about as wretched a set as per- 
haps ever disgraced the Church of God." The " Strictures " complain, 
also, that Dr. Coke contradicted the uniform declaration of the broth- 
ers Wesley respecting their adherence to the Church of England for 
near fifty years. The easy answer to this is that he had done nothing, 
save in the exercise of a power which had been directly delegated by 
.John Wesley himself. His censor finally alleges that he had " charged 
the preachers with gross duplicity and hypocrisy, by saying that they 
did in general constantly exhort the people to attend the service of the 



Thomas Coke. 57 

Churcli of England, from a full persuasion, drawn from experience, 
that there was no other alternative to preserve the Society but an ad- 
herence to that Church, or the formation of ourselves into an inde- 
pendent one." Coke explains that he was speaking only of the Meth- 
odists of America ; vindicates his action by a reference to the state of 
feeling there, of which Charles Wesley was profoundly ignorant ; and 
of the further fact, that not five thousand out of at least a hundred 
thousand composing Methodist congregations in that part of the globe, 
had ever attended any ministry but that of the Methodists. These 
were the main points of the dispute, which even drew the brothers 
Wesley into brief polemic antagonism. John sums up his estimate of 
the merits in a characteristic sentence , " I believe Dr. Coke is as free 
from ambition as from covetousness. He has done nothing rashly, that 
I know ; but he has sjpohen rashly, which he retracted the moment I 
spoke to him of it. . . . If you will not or cannot help me yourself, 
do not hinder those who can and will. I must and will save as many 
souls as I can while I live, without being careful about what may pos- 
sibly be when I die." 

In justice to Charles Wesley let it be stated, that his objections 
were to the expediency, rather than to the lawfulness, of this particular 
act, because, in their correspondence, he admits that his brother was a 
bishop in the ]^ew Testament sense of that title ; and although he 
maintained his rigid churchmanship to the last, and would not even 
think of being interred in " unconsecrated " ground, as he drew near 
the close of life he became less hostile to his brother's ordinations, and 
within twelve months of his death, writing to his brother, he says : 
" Stand to your own proposals. Let us agree to differ. I leave Amer- 
ica and Scotland to your latest thoughts and recognitions. Keep your 
authority while you live, and after your death, detur digniorihusy 

In 1786 Dr. Coke was again in America, having gone thither by 
way of the West Indies, a providential deviation to which more special 
reference may hereafter be made. He traveled through Georgia, 
South Carolina, and Yirginia, " visiting and confirming the Churches," 
and attended the third Conference in Baltimore in the following 
April. There was at this time a feeling among the preachers that he 
was disposed to exceed his legitimate powers ; and it was instanced 
(mistakenly, however, for the thing was done by Mr. Wesley) that he 



oS Methodist Bishops. 

had altered, on liis own authority, the time and place for the meeting 
of Conference after these matters had been determined by the Confer- 
ence itself. He listened to these complaints with respectful attention, 
and drew up and signed a definite pledge by which he bound himself 
to " exercise no government whatever " over the Church in America 
during his absence, nor any privilege when present but that of ordina- 
tion according to rule, of presiding by virtue of his office, and of trav- 
eling at large. This curious document, given under his hand " on the 
2d day of May, 1787," while it indicates the vigilance with which the 
preachers guarded what they deemed their rights — unconsciously inten- 
sified, perhaps, by the thought that the supposed infractor of them was 
not a citizen of the republic — indicates also the inherent greatness of 
the Bishop's soul, the spirit of Christian love in which he lived and 
moved, and that infallible criterion of superiority, the disposition to be 
frank in the acknowledgment of even unwitting error, and prompt in 
the ofier of reparation for the wrong which had been unconsciously 
done. At this Conference two notable things were done. The term 
" bishop " first appears in the printed Minutes, and the declaration 
that " during the lifetime of Mr. Wesley they were ready to obey his 
commands in matters belonging to Church government," was for the 
first time omitted therefrom. However Mr. Wesley may have thought 
that both these things had come about with unseemly speed, he was 
too shrewd to be astonished at the inevitable logical sequence from his 
own act, and too much of a statesman to believe that his ipse dixit 
could permanently control an organization three thousand miles away. 
Dr. Coke's third landing in America was in February, 1789. At 
the ensuing Conference, as certain changes amounting to a new Con- 
stitution had been given to the United States, and had been confirmed 
at a Congress in New York, in which city the Conference was assem- 
bled, it was resolved to deliver a congratulatory address to General 
"Washington, who had been elected President, and which the two Bish- 
ops were appointed to deliver. It was considered that this addi-ess 
which, after expressed congratulations on the General's appointment 
to the presidency, went on to eulogize " the most excellent Constitu- 
tion of the United States," the present admiration and future exemplar 
of the world, could not, with propriety, be presented by Dr. Coke, 
although the senior Bishop, because he was not an American citizen. 



Thomas Coke. 59 

He, however, signed it in behalf of the Church, and the difficult posi- 
tion into which his dual character as an American Bishop and an En- 
glish subject plunged him became a source of complication and embar- 
rassment. He pleased, in fact, neither side of the water, althougli 
there can be no manner of doubt that he had the best intentions toward 
both. He was charged with duplicity in the American newspapers, 
and suspected of disloyalty by some of his brethren at home. Hence, 
on his arrival at the British Conference, he felt that the countenances 
of his brethren were changed toward him ; and when the question of 
character was before the Conference there was a pause at the name of 
Thomas Coke, and the Bishop-doctor, the Anglo-American, was put 
upon his defense. The Conference was unanimous in its judgment 
that he had sinned against prudence in appending his signature to the 
address ; that its phraseology, in several parts, was such as no loyal 
British subject could lawfully use ; that it cast, by implication, reflec- 
tions upon the Government to which he had sworn allegiance ; and 
especially, that from the prominent position which he occupied, no 
utterance from his lips could be regarded as purely individual, and 
that, therefore, he had been betrayed into an act which might com- 
promise the whole Methodist body in England, and subject them to be 
suspected of disaffection to the Crown. The doctor heard the allega- 
tions in respectful silence. He saw, that from an English stand-point 
he had erred, and was not disj^osed to deny his indiscretion, though he 
was conscious that only regard for official propriety as senior Bishop 
of the American Church had prompted him to the action which was 
questioned. The Conference, indeed, though it deemed it a duty to 
visit him v/ith some mark of disapproval, was alive to the difficulties 
of his position, and more concerned to vindicate itself than to brand 
Or punish him. They knew the man and loved him, and the proceed- 
ings of the Conference, after this matter had been decided, showed that 
their affection and confidence were not a whit withdrawn. As we in 
later times, now that the haze has cleared away, review the occurrence, 
we are more disposed to pity his perplexity than to sit in judgment on 
his course. 

The omission of a sentence or tw^o in the address would have solved 
all the difficulty. If it had been as carefully worded as the General's 
reply — than which nothing could be more skillful, catholic, and happy — 



60 Methodist Bishops. 

there need have been no embarrassment. On the one hand, it would 
have been discourteous and unbecoming if the address from the Meth- 
odist Society of the United States to the cliief officer of the Grovern- 
ment had lacked the signature of the senior bishop : on the other 
hand, the Conference, having regard to the delicate position of Dr. 
Coke in his dual relationships, should have framed the address so that 
he could have signed it without reserve or misgiving, dwelling only 
upon those general topics to which the illustrious Washington confines 
his reply. But in such matters it is easy to be wise after the event. 
If in endeavoring to avoid the perils of Scylla he fell into those of 
Charybdis, it is for us to be thankful that neither the rocks nor the 
whirlpool did either him or Methodism any grievous harm. 

In October, 1790, Dr. Coke was again on the ocean, bound for the 
West Indies and America. There were by this time seven Annual 
Conferences, embracing a territorial area of two thousand miles, and 
he had to preside at them all. He was in the midst of this vast visita- 
tion, having already been refreshed in spirit at the South Carolina, 
Georgia, ISTorth Carolina, and two Yirginia Conferences, when he saw 
in a Philadelphia paper an account of the death of Mr. Wesley, and 
at once deemed it his duty to shape his course for England. After a 
tolerably pleasant voyage they came in sight of the Cornish coast, and 
the doctor, not wishing to be delayed while the ship crept round to the 
Thames, bargained with some outlying fishing-boats, made haste to land 
at Bedruth, and traveled by coach to London. In Cornwall he met 
with a minister who apprised him of what had been done by the lead- 
ing preachers since the death of Mr. Wesley. He learned that the 
idea which found most favor among them was, that the kingdom should 
be divided into districts, each composed of a group of neighboring 
circuits, and placed under the supervision of a chairman, who, like the 
President of the Conference, should be elected for one year only. He 
was told that the virtual autocracy which had been tacitly conceded to 
Mr. Wesley during his life-time would die with him, nay, had already 
died, beyond hope of a resurrection. While this information was being 
communicated, it is left on record that Dr. Coke thoiigJit aloud, and 
the thought found expression in the significant words, " It is a weight 
too great to attempt to wield." It is not for us to affirm or deny that 
there had been in the doctor's mind a half-confessed ambition to sue- 



Thomas Coke. 61 

ceed Mr. Wesley, which had quickened his steps homeward. Certainly, 
there was a suspicion among the preachers to that effect. If it was so, 
however, he showed, as has been said, " both wisdom and grace " in 
dismissing the aspiration forever. Unlimited power is too great a peril 
for any man. ISTothing but the peculiar circumstances of Mr. Wesley's 
position, and the transparent singleness of aim which characterized 
him, and redeemed him, even in his mistakes, from the suspicion of 
intentional injustice, could have justified the absoluteness of the au- 
thority wdiich he wielded. Now that he had gone to his reward there 
must be no Czar in Methodism. So determined were the brethren on 
this point, that at the Irish Conference, over which Dr. Coke had al- 
ways presided by Mr. Wesley's appointment, they declined to allow 
him the presidential chair ; and in the ensuing English Conference, the 
first after Wesley's death, they designedly passed over the men whom 
Wesley had ordained, and elected neither Coke nor Mather, but good, 
prudent, zealous William Thompson to preside over them. Having 
thus vindicated their principles, they showed their esteem for Dr. 
Coke by making him the secretary of the Conference, an office which 
he filled with some efficiency for a series of years. 

Some years afterward Coke seems to have been drawn again toward 
America, where the work was becoming too arduous for Asbury's fail- 
ing strength, and at the Baltimore Conference of 1Y96 he offered him- 
self as Asbury's colleague " wholly for America." This, however, was 
an impulse, and there were many considerations which placed him *'in 
a strait betwixt two." He had by this time become to some extent 
identified with the missionary work, and the British Conference was 
startled at the idea of losing him entirely. On his seventh voyage to 
the new world he was sent to negotiate with the American Churches 
as to his future place of abode. His administrative skill, his persuasive 
preaching, his unmistakable earnestness, and the heart which he threw 
into all he undertook, had endeared him to American Methodists. 
Perhaps, also, they were attracted in spite of themselves by his episco- 
pal predilections, and because they regarded him as a living, winsome, 
intelligent bond of connection between them and the mother Church. 
The Lord reigneth, however, and his wisdom overruled all deliberations 
and preferences, that his servant might be set free for the work which 
he had yet to do. At this Conference they consented to his " partial '' 



62 Methodist Bishops. 

continuance witli the British Conference, to which they " lent him for 
a season." The growing infirmities of Asburj, however, and the in- 
creasing magnitude of the work, necessitated a more constant super- 
vision than was consistent with even partial absence, and bj the ordi- 
nation of Whatcoat as Bishop they prepared the way for the final 
severance in ecclesiastical relations, although he was one with them in 
heart nnto the end. 

Dr. Coke would have been a greater statesman if he had had fewer 
"devices," and had cogitated longer upon those which his brain con- 
ceived. He damaged his own rejDutation, and gave occasion for sus- 
picion that he was actuated by meaner motives than the noble ones from 
which he habitually acted, by hasty and injudicious proposals. Thus 
he dreamed of a consolidation between the Methodist and Anglican 
Churches, both at home and in America, and supposed, in his innocence, 
that this could be accomj)lished without any abnegation of ministerial 
status or surrender of connectional usage, although he declared his 
readiness to submit to re-ordination if that were imposed as a pre- 
liminary condition. In this spirit he opened correspondence with Bishop 
White, in America, and with Bishop Porteus, in England. Of course, 
the negotiations failed ; of course, also, they were disclosed to the public. 
Such things, as if by a law, always become public property, and tlie dis- 
closure did not enhance among the doctor's friends his reputation for 
sagacity, while it furnished those who, hke wizards, "peep and 
mutter," with choice morsels of scandal and derision. In later life, 
Avhen he had set his heart upon the establishment of a mission in 
India, and was, perhaps, depressed because his brethren were not as 
enthusiastic in the project as himself, he learned that the government had 
some thought of establishing a bishopric in India, and wrote at once to 
Lord Liverpool, offering himself as a candidate, and promising, if ap- 
pointed, " to return most fully into the bosom of the Established 
Church." This step will be va^riously estimated according to the pre- 
dilections, or it may be, prejudices, of those who judge of it. That it 
w^as inconsiderate and Utopian no one can deny. But he was one of 
those men 

"Who think what others only dream about, 
And do what others think, and glory in , 

.What others dare but do." 



Thomas Coke. 63 

But far down in the region of motive who shall say that there was 
any thing unworthy ? There might be a mingling of selfishness with 
simplicity — both infantile, and, therefore, harmless ; or there might be a 
superb integrity of intention which lost sight both of the embarrass- 
ment to others and the honor to self in the pros]3ect of coveted spirit- 
ual good. At any rate let him have the benefit of stating, in his own 
words, his estimate of the labor which such an ofiice involved. 
In one of his latest charges to the American Conference, sj)eaking of 
himself and Bishop Asbury, he says : " We lay no claim to the epis- 
copal state of the Latin, Greek, English, or Lutheran Churches. It 
will be easily seen that we are so unlike each other that we are not 
even third cousins. Will their bishops ride from five to six thou- 
sand miles in nine months for eighty dollars a year, making arrange- 
ments for seven hundred j)reachers, and ordain one hundred men an- 
nually ; ride through all kinds of weather and roads at our time of life, 
the one fifty-six, and the other sixty-nine years of age ? " Noble am- 
bitions these ! If he desired " the ofiice of a bishop," he desired " a 
good work," in the most laborious and self-denying sense that can be 
applied to that word. He was covetous of the responsibility, of the un- 
remitting toil, of the untrammeled opportunities for doing good which 
the bishopric would bring him, rather than of the. lawn, the miter, and 
the palace— those post-aj)ostolic appendages to the ofiice, which tend 
only to weight the wings of the " angels " who have " the everlasting 
gospel to preach " in their fiight through the " midst of heaven." 

Coke was not a man of extensive literary labor or renown. How 
could he be ? The men who make history have no time to write it. 
He "gained the loss" of a considerable sum of mone}^ by his publica- 
tions, and achieved but scanty reputation in return. His Commentary, 
prepared at the request of the Conference, is a fair compilation. He 
*' gutted " many folios, as Father Sutcliffe said in reference to his own 
commentary, and his selections are skillfully made. He also published 
a few sermons, letters, pamphlets, journals, accounts of various mis- 
sions, a " History of the West Indies," the " Cottager's Bible," and, 
jointly with Henry Moore, a " Life of Wesley." He " thought he 
could do some good through the press ; " but G od had other work for 
him, and he wrought cheerfully in God's way, " charmed to confess 
the voice divine." 



64 Methodist Bishops. 

Dr. Coke was identified with so many 'of the notahilia of Method- 
ism that to write of his life is to write a Methodist history. His con- 
nection with the " Deed of Declaration " has been already referred to. 
Chosen President of the English Conference in 1797, he appended his 
sio^natnre to the famous Plan of Pacification — the maa:na charta of our 
Church — by which the controversies about the sacrament were ended, 
and the mutual privileges and hberties of preachers and people consol- 
idated in some good measure. Of Irish Methodism he was for many 
years an attached friend and an honored presiding ofiicer. The mis- 
sions into Wales, his own country, awoke all the enthusiasm of his soul, 
and were astonishingly successful. He was close upon the heels of 
Brackenbury in the Channel Isles, and organized the first Society there, 
avowedly regarding them as a " point d'avantage " from which to 
make a merciful swoop into France. 

He was the inspiration of the first missionary attack upon Gibral- 
tar, which, with a subhme unity of purpose, he regarded as the key 
to Spain, and from this the army and navy work began. To him be- 
longs, in large measure, the honor of having initiated the Home Mis- 
sion, which is now so energetically conducted by the British Confer- 
ence. At the Conference of 1805, when he was elected President for 
the second time, he made an urgent appeal for the setting apart of an 
" extra circuit ministry," specially to do the work of evangelists, and 
was soon able to mark out eight missionary districts, which were so suc- 
cessfully worked that they became, in a few years, incorporated with 
the ordinary circuits of the Connection. To this principle Methodism 
has of late years reverted, as absolutely needful to supplement existing 
pastorates if there is to be any chance of raising the rural populations 
into Christian life, or of overtaking that w^orst of all paganism — the 
paganism of forgotten Christianity among the seething masses of large 
cities and towns. Meanwhile, all things conspired to intensify the 
flame already kindled, and which impelled him to " the regions be- 
yond." It is to his connection with foreign missions that we must 
look for the crowning sublimity of his hero-life. The great mission- 
ary organizations of the present were not in existence. The mission- 
ary spirit had struggled fitfully to show itself and approve its doings 
ever since the Peformation. Let the Church of Pome have its due. 
She had her missionaries, some of them, like Xavier, " worthies in 



Thomas Coke. 65 

whom an apostle might have gloried ; " and in 1622 Pope Urban insti- 
tuted the " Congregatio de Propaganda Fide^'' whose machinery has 
become cosmopolitan, whose presses have types in all the languages of 
human literature, and whose messengers are found in all parts of tlie 
habitable world. We have rasped off the errors of Rome. It is well 
that we have not rasped oif all the substantial features of her J^iety. 
The papal missionaries, however, while they have been zealous agents 
of popery, have been for most part poor preachers of the truth as it is 
in Jesus. They have but baptized heathenism with a Christian name, 
and there has been no laver of regeneration at the ceremony. Whole- 
sale baptisms have multiplied converts, but the old man has flaunted 
in the new. garment, and the worse in some respects for the change. 
[N^ine years after the death of Luther, the Genevan Church pitied the 
North American Indians, and sent fourteen missionaries to teach them 
the better way. Tlie Society for the Propagation of the Gospel was 
shortly afterward established. Eliot and otliers had gone out under 
^Monconformist auspices, and he had not only become " an apostle to 
the Indians," but had translated the Scriptures into their language, 
giving them to " see in their own tongue, the wonderful works of 
God." The Moravian Church, to their eternal honor be it written, 
is the only Church which has been missionary from its beginning. 
Scarcely were they settled as a Communion, when they sent mes- 
sengers among the heathen to " testify the gospel of the grace of 
God." Indeed, so ardently burned the missionary flame in their 
hearts that at one time one member in every fl.fty was a missionary ; 
and they have preferred, in their Samaritanism of charity, those on 
the verge — the outcasts — of humanity, whom ordinary 23hilanthropy 
had passed by. 

This was the condition of missionary enterprise when Dr. Coke 
became fired with the holy impulse : and it is hardly too much to say, 
that if it is now a fact that missions have come to be regarded as es- 
sentials of Church life — if the Church that is not a missionary Church 
gets hardly credit for being a living Church — if every important evan- 
gelical communion has its organizations to carry on its missions to the 
heathen — then of all this Dr. Coke w^as the pioneer, and, to a large ex- 
tent, the inspiration. IN'one ever entered more truly into the apostolic 
experience, " that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gen- 



66 Methodist Bishops. 

tiles, ministering tlie gospel of G-ocl, that the offering np of the Gentiles 
might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost." Drifted, 
as it seemed by an unfriendly tempest, to the West Indies, when his 
destination was ISTova Scotia, he took up the work which had been be- 
gun by Gilbert and Baxter, until the whole archipelago had heard the 
glad sound of grace and freedom. Persecution arose : the negroes 
were flogged, sometimes to death, for their religion ; some of the mis- 
sionaries suffered personal violence, others were cast into prison, " but 
the word of God grew mightily, and prevailed." Flourishing Churches 
were formed on almost every island, and the West Indian missions, as 
they are among the oldest, have not been the least remunerative of 
the missions of the Methodist Church. The heart of the Missionary 
Bishop yearned, also, toward Africa. The Foulah Mission, which was 
first begun, was a failure ; but success the most glorious attended subse- 
quent endeavors ; and although Sierre Leone was so fatal to European 
life as to make it a costly experiment, and laborers fell so rapidly at 
their posts that it became known as the Missionary's Grave, there were 
never wanting those who aspired to be " baptized for the dead," and 
there has been a plenteous harvest to reward the sowers' toil. 

From the year 1786 Coke had the principal management of the 
foreign missions. He was designated General Superintendent ; and he 
did superintend, both by personal visitation where practicable, and by 
attention to every minute detail of their financial management. The 
British Conference gave him a carte-hlanche to obtain funds where he 
could, and besides giving of his own substance, he almost literally 
begged from door to door. As early as 1784 he published a circular 
headed, "A Plan of the Society for the Establishment of Missions 
among the Heathen," and on the second page is a list of subscriptions 
amounting to £Q<d 3^, including two guineas from himself, and two 
more from the Pev. Mr. Simpson, the clergyman of Macclesfield. He 
was proof against insult and denial, and succeeded in quarters where it 
seemed almost like the repetition of the miracle at Meribah. " Do 
you know any thing," said a naval captain to his friend, " of a little 
fellow called Coke, who goes about begging for money to send mis- 
sionaries to the heathen ? He seems to be a heavenly-minded little 
devil ; he coaxed me out of two guineas this morning." He was in 
earnest, and his earnestness became contagious, and awakened, even in 



TiroMAS Coke. 67 

hearts unused to feel so strongly, a kindred entlmsiasm. " Go on," he 
writes to the committee in London, as he incloses a remittance, " I will 
beg hard for yon." "I conld not satisfy myself," he says further, 
" till I had resolved to sacrifice all my literary labors, and to be noth- 
ing but a preacher and a beggar." The possession of the soul by one 
heroic passion will make it stoop to any drudgery, and will bring the 
refined to mingle with the coarse-minded, that they may be lifted 
above the common clay. Coke's passion was to win the world for 
Christ ; and if he thought any effort, or sacrifice, or apparent humilia- 
tion, would contribute to this, he was willing to be abased, if only his 
Master was exalted and extolled. 

Within the space of three years Dr. Coke had been much purified 
in the furnace of affliction. To his fifty-eighth year he had remained 
a celibate. In that year he married, and lived happily for six years 
following, when he " mourned his dead." He remarried after some 
time, but when little more than a year had elapsed, was again a wid- 
ower. Then he felt that his domestic history had closed, and with 
renewed consecration married his work, chose the world for his home, 
and made it " his meat and drink," as necessary and as pleasant to him 
as his daily sustenance, "to do the will " of his Father in heaven. 
Henceforward the great thought of his closing work became familiar 
to him. He turned his face to the Orient, and longed to see those vast 
countries of the morning radiant with the true light of life. His soul 
had long coveted India for Christ, and after the failure of his negotia- 
tions about the bishopric, he had correspondence with Sir Alexander 
Johnston, a 23ious judge from Ceylon, who urged that the Methodist 
missions should be established in that beautiful isle. This was the 
opening of Providence, and as such he regarded it. The continent of 
India, under the sway of the East India Company, was hermetically 
sealed to any organized missionary operations. But Ceylon, the Ta- 
probana of the ancients, was under the freer policy of the king's minis- 
ters. Some of the European languages, moreover, had currency there, 
— ^notably the Dutch and Portuguese. Claudius Buchanan, and other 
gentlemen of Indian experience, strongly encouraged the selection of 
Ceylon as a field of likely labor, and Coke's mind became possessed 
with the idea. His friends remonstrated that he was wanted in En- 
gland, that it was now autumn-time with him, when it behooved him to 



68 Methodist Bishops. 

seek well-earned repose ; that it was liis province now rather to sit on 
the mount controlling, while yonnger warriors fought the foe in the 
plain. He had but one answer: " God himself has said to me, G-o to 
Ceylon. I had rather be set naked on the coast without clothes and 
without a friend, than not go there." The Conference met, and there 
was strong opposition to the plan. The discussion was so protracted 
that it was adjourned to the following day. Dr. Coke was so depressed 
that he wept in the street. There was a change in the temper of the 
Conference next morning. Much of the night had been spent by the 
doctor on the floor of his chamber in prayer for India. How far these 
two sentences sustain to each other the relations of cause and eifect 
who shall tell ? The doctor addressed the Conference in the morning, 
strongly urging the commencement of the mission, and ended by saying, 
that if the Conference could not furnish the expense, he would be pre- 
pared to defray the expenditure necessary to the outfit and commence- 
ment of the work to the extent of £6,000. This was the spirit which 
conquered the Conference, and won for the ardent-hearted the greatest 
moral victory of his life. The Conference authorized and appointed 
Dr. Coke to undertake a mission to Ceylon and Java, and allowed him 
to take six missionaries, exclusive of one for the Cape of Good Hope. 
Thus fortified, he w^ent to work to prepare for departure. He had 
long been communicating with the men whom he designed to accom- 
pany him. He had never doubted that the scheme would be approved. 
Hence his recruits were ready. Willicnn Aidt, who had been five 
years in the ministry at home, and who, after a brief but useful career, 
was the first to '' fall on sleep " in the island, his bones, like those of 
Joseph, taking possession of the land in the name of the God of Israel. 
James Zynch, who had also been five years in the ministry, a shrewd, 
witty, earnest-hearted Irishman, who died in Leeds at a very advanced 
age. George Ersltine^ who had just completed his probation, who 
aftewards went to Australia, and died peacefully in Sydney. William 
Martin Harvard, a handsome, gentlemanly, refined, and blameless 
man, who, after a course of honor in the East, served reputably in the 
ranks of the ministry at home, and left to the Methodist Connection a 
legacy of three worthy sons. Thomas Hall Squance, a fuU-souled, 
honest, energetic spirit, w^hose long life was a record of unbroken faith 
and labor, and whose many converts have ere now welcomed him at 



Thomas Coke. 69 

heaveTi''s gate with singing ; and Benjamin Clough, youngest and dear- 
est, botli to tlie doctor and liis present biographer, a ripe Oriental 
scholar, whose Singhalese Dictionary has been the basis of all oth- 
ers, and whose Pali Grammar is unrivaled in its sphere yet ; to whom 
was given the lionor of being instrumental in the conversion of the first 
Buddhist priest wlio was made Christian, who remained at his post for 
twenty-five years, a cheerful, manly, brotherly, brave spirit, whose 
faith, like fire, transmuted every thing around it into its own substance, 
and sent all upward in a bright offering of praise. 

Benjamin Clough, with whom the writer enjoyed the intimacy of a 
relative, and from whom he received the kindness of a son, was spoken 
of to Dr. Coke as one who was likely to make him a suitable traveling 
companion. Clough has recorded the interview : " How soon could 
you be ready? " asked the Doctor. "As soon as you please," was the 
reply. " What, could you be ready by to-morrow morning ? " " Yes, 
if necessary." So in five minutes the business was settled. The young 
man soon found himself " in a missionary atmosphere," and was led on 
insensibly to be a partaker of the Doctor's enthusiasm. He relates how 
amazed he was at the composure of Dr. Coke as they passed out of 
London to Portsmouth on their way for embarkation. He seemed to 
have no lingering regret, and uttered no farewells, Clough said, as they 
were rolling through the suburbs of the city in the carriage : " It 
will be a long while. Doctor, before we see these scenes again." The 
only answer was, " Excuse me, brother, I am dead to all things but 
India." Clough thought, " Well, I am here in a peculiar situation. I 
have been brought into this position by no seeking of my own, and 
though I feel some regret at parting from friends and native land, I 
must look forward and upward. At that moment that note in the 
gospel narrative struck me, ' They left all, and followed him.' This 
raised my almost sinking spirits, and I began singing 

" ' Gladly the toys of earth we leave — 

Wealth, pleasure, fame — for Thee alone; 
To thee our will, soul, llesh, we give; 
O take, O seal them for thine own! 
Thou art the God ; thou art the Lord: 
Be thou by all thy works adored.' 

in which the doctor joined with great cheerfulness and spirit." 
5 



70 Methodist Bishops. 

This is very fine ! One knows not in which to most glorify the grace 
of God : the veteran of Christ, in whom the ardor and the wisdom of 
manhood blended with venerable age, possessed with one pnrpose so 
strongly that the city was a solitude, and he conld leave home and 
friends without regret or faltering ; or the devoted youth of tender 
heart and quick susceptibility, amazed at his emotionless companion, 
yielding to a momentary sorrow, and then casting himself upon di- 
vine fidelity, and driving away the evil spirit from his soul, as David 
from the melancholy Saul, with a burst of sacred song. 

After the decision of the Conference, all the days and many of the 
nights of the doctor were crowded with the cares of preparation. He 
drew up a plan for the general sustentation of the missions, which, 
after his death, ripened into the Wesleyan Missionary Society. He 
settled his own temporal affairs, leaving his property, with the noble 
generosity which distinguished him, to assist the provision for the 
aged and disabled ministers. He assembled his little band, and set 
them to work to study the languages with which they needed to be 
familiar. He could not meet with a professor either of Singhalese or 
Tamul in London, but a master instructed them in Dutch, and a Por- 
tuguese priest in a classical Portuguese, which was very different from 
the patois spoken by the natives in Ceylon. He also provided letters 
of introduction for his party from Earl Bathurst to the Governor of 
Ceylon, and from other notable personages to their friends in India. 
The outfit, which he took care should be of the best, occupied much 
time and thought, and at last the missionaries were ordained, the pas- 
sage taken for himself, with Messrs. Harvard and Clough, in the " Ca- 
bal va," commanded by Captain Birch ; for the rest, in the " Lady Mel- 
ville," commanded by Captain Lochner ; the London valedictory serv- 
ices held, and the party were in Portsmouth, awaiting the departure 
of the fleet wdth which they were to voyage. A Sabbath or two inter- 
vened before they set sail, and on one of these days Dr. Coke preached 
for the last time his grand missionary sermon from the text, " Ethio- 
pia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God." Toward the close of 
this sermon he thus triumphed in his victorious faith, and flung his 
soul into a prophecy : — 

" This is, perhaps, the last time I shall ever have an opportunity of 
addressing you. "Within a few days we shall bid adieu to England, 



Thomas Coke. 71 

and, probably, forever. ... I am perfectly convinced that God will 
bless our labors, though to what extent and in what manner, may be 
unknown. We are in the hands of Omnipotence, and under the Di- 
vine protection ; and here we repose in safety and peace. It is of lit- 
tle consequence whether we take our flight to glory from the land of 
our nativity, from the trackless ocean, or from the shores of Ceylon. 

" *I cannot go 
Where universal Love shines not around : 
And where He vital breathes, there must be joy.' . . . 

" We can appeal to Heaven for the purity of our motives, and we look 
into eternity for our final reward. Full of this conviction, we trust 
that God, having made us instrumental in turning the hearts of the 
disobedient to the wisdom of the just, will give us part in the first 
resurrection, that on us the second death may have no power." 

Thus spoke the veteran evangelist, as full of hope and faith as in 
his youthful prime, while, though he knew it not, the sun was slop- 
ing quickly to the horizon, and in heaven his welcome was being 
made ready, and the horses were being harnessed into the chariot of 
fire. 

For the first few months the voyage proceeded with the usual 
monotony, the doctor's chief study being his Portuguese Bible. He 
says : "I have loved the word of God since I came into this ship 
more than ever I did before. 

" 'Jesus gives me in his word 

Food and medicine, shield and sword.' " 

In the comparative inactivity of ship-board there was room for the 
testing of principles, and for the examination of the grounds on which 
they rested. But he never wavered, and while he rejoiced in com- 
parative leisure, and felt more than ever the value of retirement and 
silence, he had not a regret for the hours of " glorious drudgery " 
which he had spent in the mission cause. Mrs. Ault's death and Mr. 
Squance's sickness were the first sad incidents which depressed the 
party, and aroused the doctor's sympathy. But the greater mystery 
was at hand. In the neighborhood of the equator Dr. Coke's health 
showed symptoms of declension which aroused the apprehensions of his 



73 Methodist Bishops. 

friends. Mr. Cloiigh privately consulted the slii]3's surgeon, wlio 
shared his convictions that incessant application to stndj was sapping 
his strength, and that it was impossible for a man in his seventh dec- 
ade of life to follow his accustomed pursuits in all climates with 
equal assiduity. It was but rarely, however, that even affectionate re- 
monstrance could prevail on him to suspend his labors. Clough's win- 
some ingenuity was taxed incessantly to devise expedients to lure the 
doctor out of his cabin. If a whale appeared, or the dorsal fin of some 
villainous shark — if a dolphin chased a shoal of fiying-fish, or a ship 
came within hail — Clough would hasten to the cabin, and constrain the 
doctor from his books to the deck, but the vital energy was innerly 
wasting away. On May 2d, 1814:, the venerable countenance seemed 
shaded with unusual languor. It was a premonition of a startling 
change. It was, in fact, as the voice of warning which the sons of the 
prophets spake unto Ehsha, " Knowest thou that the Lord will take 
away thy master from thy head to-day ? " Dr. Coke was found the 
next morning lifeless in his cabin. Eighteen times had he crossed the 
Atlantic in his Master's service ; he had spent a fortune in furthering 
the cause of missions ; he had gathered up his remaining life for one 
magnificent achievement ; he had been 23ermitted to conduct his party 
within the hmits of Asia ; the brave thought of his heart was accepted 
for the accomplished deed ; and then the Lord said, " It is enough," 
and the large heart became still. The mansion was ready. The fire- 
chariot came silently, and in the still night, amid the pomp of watch- 
ing stars, the sj^irit which God loved went home. 

It was impossible to delay the funeral, nor, although private feel- 
ings wished it, would it have been fitting. He had desired that in the 
event of his death measures might be ado^^ted for the transmission of 
his remains to England for interment in the family vault at Brecon. 

But God wanted a world-famed monument reared on the " silent 
highway," and so, the sea became his grander sepulcher, as if so large 
a heart could not rest in a narrower grave. 



Francis Asbury. 



BY REV. C. ir. FOWLEK, D.D., LL.D. 



rpiITS name represents a character whose shortest axis was always 
JL perpendicular to the plane of obligation. Therefore all his motion 
was along the line of duty. Perhaps no man in modern times more 
fully than he embodied the eternal grip of oughtness. In him the 
gospel typed for a wilderness campaign. Like the great apostle to 
the Gentiles, this great apostle of American Methodism has left a 
double personal image or representation of himself in the mind of the 
Church he founded. Measured by his oft infirmities he is too feeble 
to be imposing : his bodily presence seems weak. Measured by the 
magnitude of his labors, he towers up alone, the one colossal form of 
the first half century of the Church. His words and works are most 
weighty. He ^eems like the idea of duty in work-day clothes. His 
life was a simple problem in multiplication — given so much ability, and 
so much opportunity to find the product. In him Methodism went 
down into the vineyard to work. 

A monograph, to recapitulate his deeds, would be a history of 
American Methodism for the fifty years in which she was making his- 
tory, and would swell up into a quarto, which every body would be 
glad to own., and which nobody might be willing to read. It is a good 
thing for a boy to have a father, and be up in his census history, but it 
is far better for him to be familiar with his greatness and virtue. So 
it is a good thing for a Church to have a founder, and to be up in his 
census history, but it is far better for her to understand the great moral 
currents that flowed through his years, and comprehend the soul-con- 
vulsions that lifted his work above the waters into everlasting remem- 
brance. A wise government erects its public buildings to stand for 
a thousand years. Patiently it chisels them out of granite. The style 
may grow old and odd, but the walls defy fire and frost. Among 
building materials Asbury was granite. The prudent banker puts his 
treasures behind chilled -steel. Asbury was chiUed-steel. The belated 



76 Methodist Bishops. 

stranger searches the heavens for the polar star, and with his eje on 
that he makes his way in safety. Asbnry was the ^orth star, not 
transcendently brilliant, but clear, steady, and always in the same place. 
Any stranger or bewildered mariner conld safely follow his light. 
His plans required centuries for their consummation. He seemed like 
one sowing the desert with acorns to be harvested by another genera- 
tion. He worked like one seeing the in^dsible and beheving the 
impossible. 

Great men and great events are God's ordained and anointed teach- 
ers of the race. Such men stand nearest to the Infinite. They catch 
the secret of his working. They form a league with events. "When 
they come into the world humanity goes down on her knees to receive 
them and the message they are sent to deliver. The bulk of history 
is only biography — writings about lives. We call it history — his-story 
— the story of the man who caused the things to come to pass. 

Francis Asbury grew in the saint-bearing soil of the world, in that 
social formation where there is too much poverty for idleness, and too 
much wealth for dishonesty. At the top, (in our way of seeing, God 
may reverse the order,) indolence begets crime. At the bottom, (or 
top ?) helplessness issues letters of marque and reprisal. Asbury was 
saved from both extremes. In Staffordshire, near '' the foot of Hemp- 
stead Bridge," (so says the old chronicle, without pausing to explain 
where the head of the Bridge could be,) hard by Birmingham, he was 
born and endowed with English sense. It was on the 20th day of Au- 
gust, 174:0. His parents' names were Jose])h and Elizabeth ; good 
Bible names, and they were " amiable and respectable " people, 
Francis accomplished the feats of other Enghsh children, and nothing 
more, if we except two factors that entered into and modified his whole 
life. One was the death of his only sister, a sweet and most lovable 
spirit, wliose departure left Francis the only child in the family, and 
turned his sorrowing heart toward heaven. The other was the per- 
sistent life of his only teacher, one Arthur Taylor, of Sneal's Green. 
This creature's cruelty, and not dying, drove young Asbury from his 
chance for early training. Doubtless this was overruled for good. But 
that did not rob it of its essential guilt and meanness. Taken from 
school to prevent his being taken from the world, he shortly after be- 
came an inmate of a wealthy family, where he was tested in another 



Francis Asbury. 77 

way. The family was fashionable, but not religious. Spiritually, the 
young believer suffered more from this worldly treatment than he had 
from Master Taylor's fiendish treatment. It is the old story over again : 
the captive's pit is safer than the prince's palace. 

At the early age of seven he was devoted and sober and thought- 
ful. But, seven years later, by forming the acquaintance of a pious 
man, he was set on more careful self -scrutiny. Hearing of the Meth- 
odists, he asked his mother who they were and what manner of j^eople 
they were. She spoke well of them. He went to Wednesbury to 
hear them " pray without reading, and preach without writing." The 
Divine Spirit awakened him. Shortly after, while earnestly praying 
in his father's" barn, his soul was filled with joy in believing, and he 
had the witness of the Spirit to his pardon and adoption. Immedi- 
ately he began to exercise his gifts in exhortation and preaching. Five 
years later he joined the Wesleyan Conference. From this hour for- 
ward he knew nothing but this one work. 

His preaching in England was marked by great success ; multitudes 
thronged to hear the " boy preacher." There was a ruggedness and 
directness, accompanied with youthful fire, that made all the shire- 
world wonder. His w^ork grew on his hands, and he grew on the 
hands of the Conference. 

In August of 1771, after about nine years of successful labor, he 
went up to the British Conference with his heart set on America. It 
was not a dream. He was no dreamer. It was a call as certain as 
Abraham's. It was a voice as clear as that of Joan of Arc. If the 
way opened he would go to America. The way opened in Mr. Wes- 
ley's call for volunteers. Asbury offered, was accepted, adjusted his 
matters, gained the consent of his parents, and in the summer of 1771 
he sailed for America. 

Ease did not ship with him. Fame did not call him by his given 
name. Wealth did not beckon to him. In that day America was a 
wilderness. Methodism was the newest thing in the ^N'ew World. The 
few scattered members had no powerful and well-salaried pulpits. He 
expected "to work hard, fare hard, and be used hard," and he was not 
disappointed. He heard only the voice of duty. The infant Church 
furnishes few, if any, better specimens of sacrifice. He that will lose 
his life shall find it. 



78 Methodist Bishops. 

TJie period from his landing in PhiladeljpJiia^ October^ 1771, till 
the Christmas Conference of 1784, forms a long and peculiar chapter 
in his life. He received his appointments from the Conference with 
the other preachers. At first they were changed every three months. 
If Methodism were not of God it could not survive its poor treatment. 
He was now in a new land, built on such a vast scale that its very 
magnificence was wearisome. The rivers, plains, and mountains of 
his far-away native land seemed only pocket-models compared with 
those over whose greatness he was to journey and grow great. He 
came on a mission, and waited only opportunity to begin his work. 
He was not seeking a cathedral, nor waiting for a throng. Wherever, 
in city or wilderness, in church or hamlet, he found room on which 
to stand, there he had a pulpit ; and wherever he found an open ear, 
there he had an audience. With such a spirit, and with such a gos- 
pel, such a man could not be idle. On the evening of the day he 
landed he attended service in the old St. George's Church, in Philadel- 
phia, and heard a good sermon from Eev. Joseph Pilmoor. The next 
day he enjoyed the same privilege, intensified by the opportunity to 
labor personally with inquirers. Immediately he began visiting from 
house to house, talking and praying with the people. Soon he preached 
his first sermon, and " felt his mind opened, and his tongue unloosed." 
On the 6th of November he preached, for this ten-days' visit, his last 
sermon in Philadelphia. The church in that city felt the inspiration 
of a master workman. 

From Philadelphia he went to Burlington, and preached in the 
Court-house. Next he preached on Staten Island for a few days. 
Then he made his first appearance in l^ew York, and, in the old John- 
street Methodist Episcopal Church, preached his first sermon on Tues- 
day, ISTovember 13, 1771, from the text, "I determined not to know 
any thing among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." Here he 
met Pichard Boardman. Together they cultivated ]^ew York and Phila- 
delphia, usually changing every three months. Asbury did not con- 
fine his labors to the cities. He traversed all the accessible regions, 
preaching in Westchester and other ^^hach settlements.'^^ 

Francis Ashury initiated the first regular circuit worh in Amer- 
ica. I had rather have such a productive idea truthfully mentioned 
on my tomb than the celebrated epitaph dictated by Thomas Jefferson, 



Fkancis Asbury. 79 

*' Tliomas Jefferson, tlie Antlior of the Declaration of Independence, 
and tlie Founder of the University of Yirginia." Asbury saw that 
the preachers preferred the cities, and he resolved to be an itinerant 
in deed and in truth, and '^ go w^here the people wanted [needed] him 
the most." 

While he and Boardman were working in N'ew York he wrote in 
his Journal : " I remain in New York, though unsatisfied with onr be- 
ing both in town together. I have not yet the thing which I seek, a 
circulation of the preachers to avoid partiality and popularity . Plow- 
ever, I 2im fixed to the Methodist plan, and do what I do faithfully as 
unto God. I expect trouble is at hand. This I expected when 1 left 
England, and I am willing to suffer, yea, to die, rather than betray so 
good a cause by any means. It will be a hard matter to stand against 
all opposition 

' As an iron pillar strong, 

And steadfast as a wall of brass,' 

but, through Christ strengthening me, I can do all things. My brethren 
seem unwilling to leave the cities, but I will show them the way. I 
have nothing to seek but the glory of God ; nothing to fear but his dis- 
pleasure. I have come to this country with an upright intention, and 
through the grace of God I will make it appear. I am determined 
that no man shall bias me with soft w^ords and fair speeches ; nor will 
I ever fear the face of man, or know any man after the flesh, if I beg 
my bread from door to door ; but, whomsoever I please or displease, I 
will be faithful to God, to the people, and to my own soul." This is the 
germ of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Given this initial impulse, 
and the conquest of the continent is only a question of time. These 
words, dictated by the Holy Ghost, no less than those other memorable 
words, " I count all things but loss," — nor less than those yet other 
words, " I come to do thy will, O God," — these words give us the spirit, 
the power, the government, and the organization of Methodism in 
America. 

The little city of N'ew Y )rk, with twenty-flve thousand inhabitants 
scattered between the Battery and Beekman-street, could not contain a 
man with such a purpose, impelled by such an inspiration. 

Stationed a part of the next year in Philadelphia, he visited Bur- 



80 Methodist Bishops. 

lington, Wilmington, Greenwich, Trenton, Gloucester, and other points. 
He was a born itinerant. With the sign in his legs, he must go. 

Mr. Wesley created Methodism, and held, by common consent, the 
directing power. His word was law. On the 10th of October, 1YT2, 
Mr. Asbury receiv-ed a letter from Mr. Wesley appointing him Super- 
intendent of the Societies in America. He bore this responsibility 
for about two years. He traveled frequently from I^ew York to Balti- 
more, visiting and preaching from point to point. New York, Phila- 
delphia, Baltimore, Newcastle, Wilmington, Trenton, and Burlington, 
were the principal centers from which he radiated into the rural dis- 
tricts. There were with him six or seven assistants, with definite ap- 
pointments. 

The chief 'difficulty in administering upon the interests of the 
Churcli was, then as noiL\ in the general tendency to laxness of living. 
Any thing can swim down stream. Only live fish can swim up stream. 
The members chafed under the rule concerning class-meetings, and the 
preachers dreaded tlie long circuits. In 1772 Mr. Wesley re-enforced 
the work in America by sending Thomas Kankin and George Shad- 
ford. Some Httle time after this, in accordance with the custom of 
Methodism, Mr. Bankin, being older than Mr. Asbury, was appointed 
Superintendent in America, and during his five-years' stay in the 
country discharged the duties of the office. Mr. Asbury received 
his appointments from the Conference with the other preachers. 

Mr. Asbury felt thankful to be relieved from the responsibility of 
caring for the Church, and hoped Mr. Bankin would prove all that the 
Church needed. After hearing him preach, he thought Mr. Bankin 
would never be very popular as a preacher, but would be useful as a 
disciplinarian. The order of Brovidence and the constitution of their 
minds sepai-ated these men farther than either wished. Both sought 
the same ends, the establishment of Methodism in America, and the 
enforcement of the rules of English Methodism, but by different 
processes. Bankin was English. Asbury was English Americanized. 
Bankin acted on asserted authority, Asbury veiled his authority by 
persuasion. " He was firm, yet conciliatory ; efficient, yet unassuming ; 
decided, yet not dictatorial ; strict, yet mild." Thus there grew up an 
estrangement between them. 

In 1774 Mr. Asbury suffered much from poor health, and asked 



Francis Asbury. 81 

Mr. Hanlvin not to send him to the " low country.'''' Kankin differed 
from him in judgment, and suggested that it would be vain for him to 
try to be stationed in Baltimore. " This," Asbury says, " is somewhat 
grievous, that he should j)revent my, going to Baltimore, after being 
acquainted with iiiy engagements^ and the importunities of my friends 
thereP I am glad to meet this passage. Physicians often dislike 
their own prescriptions, yet it is sometimes a good thing for them to 
swallow them, regardless of preferences. The dictatorship of Rankin 
closed with his flight from the Colonies, whose cause he could not es- 
pouse, but it had instructed Asbury in the secret of power. The su- 
perintendency falling again upon him, was liandled with the utmost 
wisdom and discretion. 

His time was occupied by the habit of his life, and by the pressure 
of his work. While the number of the preachers was small and the 
Conferences few, yet the times were most troubled, and the Church 
needed both creating and sustaining. His health giving way under 
the pressure of care and work, he visited the Warm Sulphur Springs 
in Yirginia for rest. That his time might not be wholly lost during 
this, he adopted the following rule : " To read one hundred pages a day, 
to pray in public five times a day, to preach in the open air every other 
day, and to lecture in prayer-meeting every other evening." This was 
recreation at a watering-place, toned down to suit a worn-out worker ! 
But the strangest thing is to come. He says, " The size of the house 
in which we live is twenty feet by sixteen, and there are seven beds 
and sixteen persons, besides some noisy children." With this treat- 
ment for the sick, it would be interesting to know what the well did 
and endured. After five weeks of this ^''rest^^ he left the Springs dis- 
gusted, calling them '' the best and worst place I was ever in — good 
for health, but most injurious for religion." 

His relations to the Colonies were emharrassed hy his relations to 
English Methodism. This gave him one of the sorest trials of his 
entire life. Early in his experiences in America he became convinced 
that the Methodism of this country could not always be appended to 
the Methodism of Great Britain. Slowly he worked his way up 
through the many questions that entangled his path. Tlie spirit of 
the Colonies rose higher and higher as the years of the' war passed 
by. Every man was scrutinized. And these English preachers, trav- 



82 Methodist Bishops. 

eliiig up and down tlie land, needed to give good account of tliemselves 
or snffer the consequences. All the missionaries sent over hj Wesley 
left the country except Asbury. Hankin urged upon him the neces- 
sity of their all leaving while they had a chance. Asbury declined. 
His associates might go if they pleased, but he would stand by the 
souls who looked to him for care whatever the consequences might be. 
He told Mr. Rankin that the Americans would never be satisfied 
with any thing short of independence, that he felt a presentv/nent that 
God Almighty designed America to be free and independent, and that 
a great American Methodist people would be gathered in this country. 
On this conviction he determined to stand by the Colonies and Ameri- 
can Methodism. This view, doing such credit to his statesmanship, 
maintained with such courage in spite of the desertion of all his coun- 
trymen, and in spite of his veneration for Wesley, ought to have made 
him friends among the Colonists. It is exactly in this line that we 
recall liis personal friendship for Washington, which was cordially re- 
turned by that leader. It is told in his utterances on the occasion of 
AYashington's death, " Washington, the calm, intrepid chief, the disin- 
terested friend^ first fatlier and temporal saviour of his country. . . . 
I am disposed to lose sight of all but Washington — matchless man ! " 
In spite of these views, so loyal to the Colonies and so honorable to 
the man, he was misrepresented and misunderstood. Having a hor- 
ror for war, and feeling daily the embarrassment of the Church and 
the peril of the cause of Christ, he went quietly about the work of 
preaching the gospel, never referring to the questions at issue, seek- 
ing only to do what he could to save sinners. But he was an English- 
man, and those unacquainted with his heart felt sure he must be a Tory. 
His steps were followed, and his field of usefulness narrowed. He 
w^as preaching in Baltimore when he was required to take the oath of 
allegiance. There were some things in the State oath to which he could 
not subscribe, and so he conscientiously refused, because it was "pre- 
posterously rigid " and " unreasonable." He could then jDreach no 
more in Maryland. He retired to Delaware, where a State oath 
was not required of clergymen. " He could have taken," he says, 
" wdth a good conscience, the Delaware oath, had it been required." 
He retired to an asylum at the residence of Thomas White, Esq., 
in Delaware. He rested in this family about one month, when 



Francis Asbury. 83 

circumstances made it necessary for him to leave for a season. lie 
went forth, not knowing where he should find shelter. He caino 
upon a house of mourning, and acted as minister to comfort 
the sorrowing ; then journeyed on with no objective point, wishing 
simply to go from, not to. The way was winding, lonely, and depress- 
ing. Late at night, weary and sick, he found a shelter. The next day 
he felt constrained by other events to move on again. He went out 
into a dark and dismal swamp and remained till night, when a friend 
took him in and protected him. In this swamp he drank the dregs of his 
cup, and sank lower in his feelings than ever before. But his motives 
were pure. He trusted in Providence, and so waited for deliverance. 
At this point news reached him that Kev. Joseph Hartley had been 
imprisoned, and that the amiable Freeborn Garrettson had been mobbed 
and nearly killed. The patriotism of the ignorant was often made to 
accomplish the purposes of bigots, who could not endure the rebuke 
of righteousness. 

After a month he returned to Judge White's, where he remained 
till the troubles were passed. He preached about iu the neighborhood 
as he could find opportunity. But Delaware was too small for him, 
and he was depressed till he was again about his great work. It 
was not a home, nor a few friends, nor quiet, nor rest he wanted ; but 
he must be about his Master's business, and nothing less than the con- 
tinent could satisfy him. 

Threatened separation of the Church in the South from the Church 
in the JSTorth claimed Mr. Asbury's earliest attention after leaving his 
retreat. Having become a citizen of Delaware, he went to Baltimore 
with recommendations from the Governor of Delaware that opened 
his way to work in Maryland without restraint. It was high time he 
was in the field. Troubles were rife on all the hard questions of 
Church polity. The Methodist Church in England had always been 
regarded as a part of the English Church. They were only Societies in 
the body of the Church. The Wesleys were clergymen of the En- 
glish Church, and did not understand that they were actually creating 
a gigantic Church. This same idea came to the Colonies with Meth- 
odism. Methodism, therefore, had no ordained ministers, and no sacra- 
ments. The people and preachers went alike to the clergy of the En- 
glish Church for the sacraments. These men were neitlier numerous 



84 Methodist Bishops. 

nor often eminent for piety. The people began to ask, "Why cannot 
our preachers, who teach us, and in whose piety we have confidence, 
administer the sacraments as well as these wine-drinking, ease-seeking 
ministers, or as well as the Presbyterian and Baptist ministers ? 

This unnatural relation could not endure the shock of rerolution. 
In the South, where Methodism found congenial soil, and where natiye 
preachers were more abundant, and English infiuence less marked, the 
preachers and people became restless. By and by it culminated. The 
Virginia preachers indicated resistance to the unnatural practice. The 
Conference of Northern preachers, in IT 79, sent a judicious and con- 
ciliatory letter to their Southern brethren. It accomplished nothing. 
At the Conference, held in Virginia a few weeks later, the preachers 
resolved to proceed wirh the necessary work upon which they had en- 
tered. Tliey appointed a committee of the most respectable and el- 
derly men among them to ordain the preachers. The committee first 
ordained themselves, and then the other members of the Conference. 
Then they administered the ordinances among the people. 

Soon this reached Asbury and troubled him exceedingly. It was 
not Methodistic. He forgot that Methodism means always doing the 
best thing possible to-day. He set himself with all his might to re- 
claim them. He wrote both arguments and love. But they answered, 
'• The people will not go to the clergy of the Episcopal Church." Just 
before the session of the Northern Conference, in ITSO, Asbury re- 
ceived an encouraging letter from one of the Virginia preachers. 
This renewed his efforts. The Southern Conference refused to adopt 
Asbury's plan, which offered union on condition that the dissentients 
should ordain no more, that they should not presume to administer 
the ordinances where there was a decent Episcopal minister, and that 
they would hold with the Xortli a Union Conference. Failing in this, 
Asbury offered a resolution that a committee be appointed to proceed 
to the Southern Conference, and to propose the suspension of all pro- 
ceedings respecting the ordinances for one year. This prevailed. As- 
bury, AVilliam TTatters, the oldest native preacher, and the loving and 
able Freeborn Garrettson, were appointed the committee. In fear 
they went to Virginia. 

The Conference met and asked Asbury to ojyen the case. He read 
^Vcsley's "Thoughts against Separation" from the Church, exhibited 



Francis Asbuky. 85 

his own private instructions from Wesley, and explained tlie .views of 
the Conferences held at Delaware and at Baltimore. He then preached 
to the Conference a prudent gospel sermon. The prospect seemed 
good. But the intermission at noon undid all that had been done. In 
the afternoon he explained mildly the conditions of union, and left 
them to act. Shortly a committee from the Conference come to no- 
tify him that the Conference could not accept the terms. This de, 
cision overwhelmed Asbury and his associates. Methodism must 
henceforth be divided in America, and the different sections must war 
upon each other. The picture was too dark. He burst into tears, and 
the other brethren wept with him. All hope of union and peace was 
gone. Almost broken-hearted, Asbury went to his room and poured 
out his soul to God, asking for deliverance. Then he went round to 
the Conference to take his leave of them. It is impossible to describe 
his joy on being told, at the Conference door, that the Conference had 
reversed its decision, and concurred in the plan of union. Who shall 
say that Asbury's tears and prayers did not prevail ? This is evident, 
that his management of this most difficult case — so prudent, so gentle, 
so tearful, so firm, so manly — demonstrated his ability. Where such a 
man sits, there must be the head of the table. 

His work for the next four years was riding, 23reaching, swimming, 
shivering, holding Conferences, raising money for the Church, as it 
had been in the past. 

The Christmas Conference deserves liberal space. This session of 
the Conference, in 1784, is, without doubt, the most important meeting 
of Methodist preachers ever held on this continent. It was the or- 
ganization of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America. The form 
of government, the constitution, and the character of the Church 
were fixed by this session. It was no accidental gathering. It was 
the culmination of years of preparation. The time had fully come. 
The war of the Revolution had settled the relations between England 
and the United States. The Churches this side of the Atlantic must 
be separate from those in England. After mature deliberation Mr. 
Wesley resolved upon establishing the Methodists of America as a 
Church distinct from the Episcopal Church of this country, and for 
this purpose ordained Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Yasey as Elders 
for the Methodist Episcopal Church in America. He then appointed 



86 Methodist Bishops. 

Dr. Coke and Mr. Asburj joint Superintendents over the Methodists 
in America, and he ordained Coke as bishop. Coke, "Whatcoat, and 
Yasey arrived in America in the autumn of 1784:. They communicated 
the object of their mission to Mr. Asbury and others. A Conference 
of all the preachers was called to meet in Baltimore, on Christmas-day, 
1784. They met, read Mr. Wesley's letter, adopted his plan of gov- 
ernment. But, true to the practice of his life and the instincts of his 
nature, Mr. xlsbury refused to accept the oiSce as Mr. Wesley's ap 
pointee. He referred it to the preachers to elect. Thus the office o"^ 
bishop was to be filled by election. On the motion of Jolm Dickins, 
the new Church was named the Methodist Episcopal Church. Then 
Dr. Coke and Mr. Asbury were unanimously elected bishops. Mr. 
Asbury was ordained deacon, December 25, elder, December 26, and 
consecrated bishop, December 27, and Dr. Coke gave him one parch- 
ment covering the three ceremonies. That is the shortest time on 
record in which any one ever passed from the laity to the episcopacy. 
This could not have been done had not there been a vast amount of 
episcopal material in the subject. 

It is worthy of note, that the very first thing done by the new 
Church after its organization was to establish a seminary of learning 
for the education of youth. 

The history of Bishop Asbury after the Christmas Conference is a 
story of long journeys through dangerous forests, many cares, much 
exposure, frequent distresses, often infirmities, perpetual poverty, and 
great usefulness. As we recall the varied scenes of his life, enough 
will appear to fill out this vast outline of character. 

St. Paul thought it good for the Church to have a few glances at 
the difficulties that he encountered in his work. So it may encourage 
our faith to glance over the difficulties met and vanquished by this 
pioneer bishop. His first and constant difficulty vras poverty. Work- 
ing for $64 a year and traveling expenses could not secure a speedy 
fortune : yet there were not wanting men who charged him with 
making a fortune out of his office. An appeal to Mr. Dickins, Book 
Agent, who audited his accounts, developed a clear account of Asbury's 
business habits. He took his salary, 164 per year, and made the most 
of it. Not another cent came to him from any other source. Every 
thing above this was credited to the Church and accounted for. 



FpwAncis Asbury. 87 

He gives ns a graphic picture of a ri(|e he- took with Bishop 
M'Kendree, in Georgia. He says, "We are riding in a poor $30 
chaise, in partnership, two bishops of us. But it must be confessed 
it talHes well with the weight of our purses. What bishops ! Well, 
but we have great times. Each Western, Southern, and Virginia Con- 
ference will have a thousand souls truly converted to God. And is 
not this an equivalent for a light purse ? Are we not well paid for 
starving and toil?" In 1804 he says, '^ The superintendent bishop of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, being reduced to two 
dollars^ was obliged to make his wants known." Another window 
through which we can look for revelations is found in 1806, while he 
was attending the Western Conference. He says, " The brethren 
were in want, and could not suit themselves, so I parted with my 
watch, my cloak, and my shirt." The bishop of five hundred preach- 
ers and of one hundred and thirty thousand members selling his 
watch, cloak, and. shirt, to help the preachers that were even poorer 
than himself ! ISTothing is impossible under such a leader. The old 
story of the military commander pouring out a little water rather than 
drink it when his soldiers were famishing is outdone, and need not 
seek corroboration. 

TJie untamed character of the country was a constant enemy to 
his ease. The roads were rough or only bridle paths. He crossed 
wide districts with no guide but the sun and stars; clambered over 
mountains wdth no path but the trail of the savage or the track of 
wild animals ; swam rivers filled with floating ice ; slept on the gronnd 
in the rain ; crowded into the cabins of the settlers ; endured all things, 
and hoped all things. There seems to remain no form of peril or 
exposure which he did not encounter. In May, 1Y82, during the two 
weeks following the Baltimore Conference, Asbury traveled through 
Maryland and Pennsylvania, a distance of more than two hundred 
miles, crossing the mountain on foot, and preaching seventeen times 
in "the huts and cabins. We soon became accustomed to see this man 
ride forty or fifty miles a day, preach once or twice, and swim the 
rivers in his pathway. Search the records of civilized nations and of 
barbarians, and you shall find no form of exposure to which you can- 
not find a duplicate in the life of Asbury. 

In 1795 he spent January and February in Charleston, S. C.;, to 
6 



88 Methodist Bishops. 

secure the lielp of a mild climate for liis delicate health. But the 
wickedness of the city shocked him beyond endurance. lie says. •'* I 
was insulted on the pavement with some as hijrrible sayings as could 
come out of the mouth of a creature this side of hell. AVhen I pray 
in my room with a few poor old women, thijse who walk the streets 
will shout at me." If he went to the plantations he encountered sin 
in other and equally horrid forms. He says. "If a man-of-war be a 
floating hell, the Southein rice plantations are standing ones." 

The intensity of these trials was increased by tlie fact that they 
had t(j be bc'rne alone. The membership of the Church was small, 
and the members were scattered far and wide. They were poor, in 
little cabins on the border, and scattered along the streams. Asbury 
was not solicited by wealthy and cultivated Church committees to 
come to large and opulent congregations. He had no attentive com- 
mittee to put an elegant home richly furnished in order for his recep- 
tion. He had no treasurer to take full charge of liis bills and see that 
no worldly care be allowed to disturb his studies and meditation. His 
work was of a diiferent character. He mounted his horse, and rode 
forty or fifty miles daily through the mud and rain, swam the streams, 
often slept on the ground in the rain, went without his food, search- 
ing among the cabins for sinners to save, and for ro'Om in which to 
plant the Redeemer's kingdom. Frecpaenily wandering in the wilder- 
ness, weary, wet. hungry, he would make his way to some solitary 
lio'ht to be crreeted bv curses, and to have the dos; hissed after him. or 
receive such a cold greeting that he felt he was not welcome, when he 
invariably went out. regardless of the rain, or darkness, or hunger, or 
even the exhaustion of his horse, and sought more hospitable cpjarters 
under the shelter of some forest tree. Often when received into the 
privations of border life he found his greatest need, in his own shai-p 
language, to be •• a hrimstone shirt." It would recpiire volumes to 
repeat, in the sim23lest way. his experiences of this character. Xot 
only was he without members on whom to rely. but. of course, he had 
no places in which to preach except as he created them for the hour. 
Visiting Yorktown. he writes. •• York, lately the seat of war I Here 
Lord Cornwallis surrendered to the combined armies of America and 
France. The inhabitants are desolate and careless. I preached to a 
few women, and then lodged in tJie j-'oor-house." A little later, visiting 



Francis Asbury. 89 

Bath Springs, Ya., lie " preached in the theater, and lodged under the 
same roof with the play-actors." I^ot having churches, he transformed 
the whole land into a vast cathedral, and preached up and down each 
aisle, and at each pew-door. There is hardly a rock or mountain or 
brooklet, from New York to the Gulf, between the sea and the summit 
of the Alleghanies, that did not hear his voice or echo his cry of life. 

But even his destitutions and hardships did not shield him from 
abuse. He could not become too poor to be robbed, nor sink too low 
to be slandered. To enemies he says, " The Methodists acknowledge 
no superiority but what is founded on seniority, election, and long 
and faithful services. For myself, I pity those who cannot distin- 
guish between a pope of Rome and an old worn man of about sixty 
years, who has the powers given him of riding five thousand miles a 
year at a salary of eighty dollars, through summer's heat and w^inter's 
cold ; traveling in all weathers ; preaching in all places ; his best cover- 
ing from rains often a blanket ; the surest sharpener of his wit, hunger, 
from fasts voluntary and involuntary ; his best fare for six months in 
the year, coarse kindness; and his reward from too many, suspicion, 
murmurings, and envy all the year round." 

Prejudice and bigotry and ignorance combined to load him down 
with difficulties and disabilities. Once in Kent County, Maryland, an 
officious Episcopal preacher demanded by what authority he preached, 
ordered him to desist, and threatened to proceed against him according 
to law. Asbury disregarded him and his assumptions. Somewhat 
discomfited the preacher said, " You will create a schism." Asbury 
replied, " Do not horse-races hinder the people ? " He insolently 
asked, " What is your work ? " " To turn sinners to God," said Asbur}^ 
The parson laughed and said, ''You are a fine fellow, indeed." Soon 
he got angry. But Asbury went calmly on, as he was wont to do, 
meeting all manner of abuse from saints and sinners, ordained and 
unordained. These human wolves were soon forgotten amid the howl- 
ing of forest and wilderness wolves. 

Outside perils proved no mean tests of courage. Do you doubt it ? 
Go w^ith him to yonder Dismal Swamp, in South Carolina, He was 
" every- where surrounded with a wide sweep of waters and deep 
morasses." Yet how jollily he takes it for such a grim and resolute 
soul. He says, " Three miles on the water and three more on roads 



90 Methodist Bishops. 

under water made our jaunt xm-pleasantr Overtaken, by a terrific 
storm in the mountains, lie says, " We vjere sjpoken to on our way by 
most awful thunder and lio^htning, accompanied by heavy rain.'' 
Once traveling all day in a chilly rain, while suffering with a blinding 
headache and fever, he crossed the Wautawga, swimming his horse 
behind a canoe, and was overtaken in the mountains bv nioi-ht. He 
says, " I was ready to faint. The mountain was steep on both sides. 
I prayed to the Lord for help. Presently a profuse sweat broke out 
upon me, and my fever entirely subsided." When every thing else 
failed he prayed things through. In a few days we find him again 
crossing the Alleghanies " at a bad passage." He writes, ''' We came 
to an old, forsaken habitation in Tygart's Yalley, where our horses 
browsed and we cooked our lunch. Midnight brought us to J.'s. The 
old man awoke us at four next morning. We journeyed on through 
devious, lonely wilds, where no food might be found except what 
grew in the woods or was carried with us. Xear midnight we stopped 
at A.'s, who hissed his dogs at us. So we journeyed on. . . That night 
our 2DOor horses got no corn, and next morning they had to swim 
across the Monongahela. Man and beast were so outdone that it took 
ten hours to accomplish the next twenty miles." Once in crossing the 
Catawba, at Howe's Ford, he came near losing his life. He entered 
the river at the wrong place, and was soon among the rocks and whirl- 
pools. His head swam, and his horse was affrighted. In the good 
order of Providence he was delivered from that bear into the lion's 
mouth — darkness. JS^is-ht came. It rained. He lost his wav. Wan- 
dered till past midnight. Pound a house ; called. The settler answered, 
asking, " Who is there ? " Asbury replied, " It is raining too power- 
fully for talk." The door opened, and " dear old Father Harper " cried 
out in astonishment, " God hless your soul ! Is it Brother Ashury f 
Wife^ get ujpy This experience is varied only by greater emphasis. 
Hear him say, " My dear M'Kendree had to lift me up and down from 
my horse like a helpless child." Still he went on. l^o wonder that 
he was often compelled to sit while preaching. I only wonder that 
he did not preach habitually in his coffin. See him hurrying through 
the wilds of Kentucky, three hundred miles over mountains and 
through vast stretches of unbroken reeds, threatened and harassed by 
hostile savages, protected only by ten men, and making the entire 



Feancis Asbuey. 91 

journey in six days. The strangeness of the scene, the danger to him- 
self and company, and the disordered condition of his health, all conspired 
to rob him of his sleep.* Between care and picket-duty he slejit less 
than one hour in twenty-four. This soon brought on delirium. 
Surely such w^ork was a full measure of his endurance. The record 
of his journeys demonstrates that even such fatigue and disease could 
not long hinder him. From January, 1785, to January, 1Y90, he made 
twenty visits to Yirginia, ten to E'orth Carolina, seven to South Car- 
olina, nineteen to Maryland, seven to Pennsylvania, ten to 'New 
Jersey, seven to Delaware, five to New York, and two to Georgia. 

He gives us a glance at one year's work, 1Y91. Traveled a circuit 
embracing thirteen States, over which were scattered two hundred and 
fifty preachers and sixty-three thousand members ; attended seventeen 
Conferences, and superintended the complicated and multiplied interests 
of the Church ; traveled from thirty to fifty miles every day ; preached 
from one to five times a day ; talked and prayed in every house at 
which he called ; examined, received, stationed, and changed the preach- 
ers ; j)rovided means for sustaining a college in Maryland, and for found- 
ing schools in other places. Having his years filled in this manner is 
what enabled him to say, in 1814 : " I have crossed the Alleghanies more 
than sixty times." This gives the grand aggregate of his travel at 
more than three hundred thousand miles. Add now the preaching of 
twenty-five thousand sermons, and the writing of fifty thousand letters, 
and you crowd his life with such plans and work that all this travel is 
an imnoticed incident. As the standing of the orator during the deliv- 
ery of a great oration is lost to his consciousness in the mighty work of 
his brain, so all this wide traveling and sacrifice and exposure were 
unheeded in the care of all the Churches that came upon him daily. 
It must also be remembered that these journeys were not made in a 
palace car, but on horseback and on foot, through mud and rain, over 
trackless mountains and fordless rivers. He walked, wandered, waded, 
swam, browsed, starved, di'ipped, shivered, and died daily. It must 
also be remembered that these journeys were not inspired by love of 
money, or of ease, or of pleasure, or by ambition ; but were endured 
in the hope of saving sinners and establishing the kingdom of Christ. 
Seen from this stand-point Asbury takes his jplace hythe side of Paid. 

The creative jpaH of his work makes a most remarkable element in 



92 Methodist Bishops. 

his character. Watching is shared by the cat ; traveling by birds of 
passage ; expressing ideas by all animate nature ; going through 
routine, by all instinct ; but creating distinguishes from the animal, 
exalts among the human, and alhes to the divine. Asbury created 
American Methodism. He did not sit down and tJiinh it out at once, 
evolve it from his internal consciousness, as the German philosopher 
did the camel. But he fashioned the living materials, and caused 
them to grow into shape under his hand. 

He began at the beginning, and went through in the order of 
growth. Almost every distinctive feature can be traced to him. 
To him we are indebted for the initiation in America of the circuit 
system. It grew out of the necessities of calling an unsaved and 
scattered people, and was framed into law by this great statesman. He 
actualized the itinerancy in this country. From the same organizing 
brain we received the first coj)y of our Discipline, in 1Y85. He gave 
shape and character to the Christmas Conference, making the Bishops 
elective, the superintendency general, and the Conference supreme. 
Five years before the Christmas Conference he prepared a subscrip- 
tion for a Methodist school, and to him belongs the honor of instituting 
district denominational schools, perpetuated in Conference Seminaries. 

We trace the Methodist Book Concern, from its present palatial 
quarters on Broadway, JN^ew York, and Fourth-street, Cincinnati, back 
to Mulberry-street, Crosby-street, Chatham-square, back to John-street 
in 1804, to Philadelphia, then up into Asbury 's brain. It is worthy 
of mention, that in his earliest reference to this great enterprise, as 
early as 1787, the first object specified by him as the recipient of the 
profits was " the college." Methodist missions were born of his zeal. 
" The Chartered Fund " came from his foresight. The Preachers' 
Fund was first known as " The Asbury Mite Fund." There is hardly 
a benevolence in the Church which he did not create and fashion. 
It is honor enough for him, or for any man, to have brought forth 
these great productive, self -projecting ideas. Above all, be it forever 
remembered, he was the fiest man on the continent to introduce 

SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. 

In 1786, jive years lyefore OMy one else moved in the matter^ he or- 
ganized a Sdbhath-school in Hanover County^ Yirginia, hi the house 
of Thomas Crenshaw, 



Francis Asbury. 93 

He devoted inucli time and thought to " the schools for charity 
boys " in Georgia. He seems to have been created witli special gifts 
for creating and preparing great enterprises. Study the great societies 
of Methodism, Educational, Missionary, Bible, Preachers' Relief, 
Tract and Sunday-School Societies, and Camp-meetings, borrowed 
from the Presbyterians, but adopted and adapted to our uses ; also 
the Delegated General Conference, with the Pestrictive Pules, the 
Charter of the Church, harmonizing all the peculiarities of the denom- 
ination ; moreover, Methodism itself, in all its history and develop- 
ments ; study all these, and you have demonstration of greatness in 
Asbury rarely given to mortals. Surely we have found one of God's 
great w^orkers. 

The progress of such a man in his work is marked by a trail of 
light. When he enters a State or city a hght above the brightness of 
the noon-day sun shines into and in it. The first years of his ministry 
in this country were devoted to the coast between 'New York city and 
Charleston. Attacking this continent of sin, he opened fire all along 
the Atlantic coast. With his cause well intrenched he pushed for- 
ward toward the interior. In 1781 he pushed up the south branch of 
the Potomac to the foot of the Alleghany Mountains. And not until 
1786 was he permitted to stand on the summit of the AUeghanies and 
look down upon the site of the nation of the future. In 1788, from 
the Baltimore Conference, he went out through the Western counties 
of J^orth Carolina, and shoved on up into the mountains. He crossed 
three ranges which, on account of their ruggedness, he called steel, stone, 
and iron. This journey tried the temper of the man. He was over- 
taken and almost overwhelmed in one of the dark valleys with a ter- 
rific thunder storm. Late at night he reached the solitary cabin of a 
settler. The next night also found him in the mountains. By a 
helpful Providence at a late hour he found another shelter. On the 
third day, from the summit of tlie third range, he looked down into 
the valley of the Holston river. After many hours of hard riding 
he reached the river and crossed over to his destination. This was his 
first entrance into Tennessee. Two years earlier he had sent two 
preachers into this wild region, and that took him into this wilderness. 
He must go anywhere he would send his preachers. In 1790 he made 
a most perilous journey over the mountains, through the wilderness, 



94 Methodist Bishops. 

and got liis first sight of Kentucky. In 1Y91 he first visited Xew 
England. Jesse Lee had been two years spreading terror among the 
hosts of sin, and awakening hope in the bosoms of sinners. This was 
one of his most memorable journeys. The advanced state of civiliza- 
tion, attested by the neat houses and frequent school-houses and 
churches, contrasted sharply with the wilderness and cabins with which 
he was familiar in most of his journeys. This was not the only con- 
trast. The coldness and assumption of the people made him wish for 
the heartiness and candor of his border friends. Among other places 
he visited New Haven, and got a view of the college and of their hospi- 
tality. He preached. He says " every thing was quiet." He had one 
Stiles, incumbent of the college presidency at that time, and some 
collegians and a few students to hear liis sermon. When he had 
finished no man sjDoke to him. He visited the college chapel at the 
hour of prayer, wishing to look through the building, but no one 
invited him. He says : '' Should Cokesbury ever furnish the oppor- 
tmiity, I, in my turn, will requite their behavior by treating them as 
friends, brethren, and gentlemen." It is strange how things come 
round. It may not be impossible that this name of Stiles, hke that 
of Malchus, in the 'New Testament, will find its immortality by being 
mentioned by this apostle, to whom he would not speak. Asbury 
left ISTew Haven without finding a place therein in which to eat or 
sleep. He also visited Middletown, and preached to a large and atten- 
tive audience in the Congregational Church. But no one in^dted him 
home. Should he walk through the streets of Middletown to-day the 
very pavements would sink beneath his feet, like the waves of the 
sea, and unnumbered multitudes, accej)ting his faith, would pronounce 
him blessed. 

On this same journey he also visited Boston. There was no Meth- 
odist Church there, and he had an appointment to preach in Dr. Mur- 
ray's church, where he found twenty hearers in a very large room. 
Preached again the next niglit, and, hy preaching very loxid^ drummed 
up a larger congregation. He admired their public buildings more 
than their hospitality; no man invited him home. In lY94he entered' 
Yermont for the first time, and in 1798 he entered Maine. This con- 
secrated to Methodism and righteousness all the United States and 
Territories. 



FllA^^CIS ASBURY. 95 

Asbiirj was permitted to see the cause Le so dearly cherished, and 
the Church he so bravely and widely extended over these vast regions, 
prosper even beyond his fondest hope. When he came to America 
there were six hundred members and seven preachers. Before he left 
it for heaven there were two hundred thousand members and seven 
hundred preachers. Surely this was good seed, well planted, well 
watered, and divinely multiplied. 

Asbiiry^s administration needs no vindieation. American Meth- 
odism created, molded, vitalized, is sufficient. He had all the ele- 
ments necessary to a great executive. He seemed to have an intuitive 
knowledge of men. He read them like an open page. He carried 
scales into which he put all his colaborers, and marked them with 
their gross and net weight. It is remarkable how many very good- 
sized men are mearly all packages. This gift of a well-poised and quick 
judgment was of incalculable value to a bishop whose work must be 
left in the care of men with whom his acquaintance must often be 
very limited. Distant fields, filled with undeveloped difiiculties, could 
not be successfully handled by chance experimenting. Men must bo 
sent who would secure success on the first attempt, who would jump 
ashore at one jump. Asbury's gift in penetrating the fiber of men's 
minds and character often made him seem severe, but it saved the 
struggling cause from many rebuffs. 

In one of the Western Conferences, after a sweeping revival, two 
young men of note, one of them the son of a distinguished, learned 
teacher, the other the son of a distinguished and wealthy general, were 
presented with reconnnendations to thev traveling connection. The 
Conference discussed them, with the evident conviction that they were 
doing a great business and making Methodism respectable. By and 
by Asbury, after studying the candidates carefully, broke his long 
silence, saying, " Yes, yes, in all probability they both will disgrace 
you and themselves before the year is out." In nine months both 
were out of the Church. This insight is the gift of all commanders 
who are compelled to intrust their interests in critical moments to the 
care of others. Once in an inn in Yirginia he was interrupted by the 
coming of a company of young men, returning from a duel. He soon 
saw they were cultivated men, and he understood their business. In 
the free conversation in which he engaged with them, he gave them a 



96 Methodist Bishops. 

parable of a wounded buck, wliicb presented the enormity of their 
crime, and caused then all simultaneously to arise and take their car- 
riage and drive where their secret was unknown. 

His knowledge of men rested upon his close observation, and this 
extended to every department of life. Perhaps no man was ever more 
familiar with the Atlantic States than Bishop Asbury. His estimates 
of the value and character of different sections were pre-statements 
of history. Of ISTew Hampshire, he says, " The soil, though barren, 
exhibits in the abundant productions of grass, oats, barley, rye, and 
potatoes what the arm of labor and the habits of economy and industry 
will do. Out of doors there is a well-kept stock of cattle, sheep, and 
hogs ; in-doors you see plenty of cheese, butter, milk, and of fish 
from the mill-ponds, which are wonderfully frequent, producing the 
finest trout and pike. The people are the pictures of health." Of 
the women, he said, " The sim23hcity and frugality of iSTew England 
is desirable. You see the woman a mother, mistress, maid, and wife, 
and in all these characters a conversable woman. She sees to her own 
house, parlor, kitchen, and dairy. Plere are no noisy negroes running 
and lounging. If you wish breakfast at six or seven o'clock there is 
no setting the table an hour before the provisions can be produced." 
These pecuharities of thrift must have struck him with great force in 
contrast with large portions of the South. He also notes the things 
that seem offensive in Yankee character. He was greatly amused 
with a " congregation that sold their priest to another congregation in 
Boston for $1,000, and hired out the money at the unlawful interest 
of twenty-five or thirty per cent. How wdll it do to tell the South 
that priests are among the notions of Yankee traffic ? " 

The w^ork of stationing the preachers never ceased to be a great 
care on his mind. The later years of his administration there were 
five hundred and upward. These he had to comprehend and adjust 
to the work. Success vindicated his judgment. 

His life as bishop was one of constant watchfulness. He was sel- 
dom, if ever, without new enterprises which he was pushing for the 
advancement of the Church. Begging money for the schools and for 
the benevolent causes, he seemed a Hving embodiment of tenderness 
and strength and wisdom. 

In the spring of 1814 Bishop Asbury's health, long precarious, be- 



Francis Asbury. 97 

gan rapidly to decline. His constitution gave way. In reviewing his 
life at tliat date lie says, " I look back on a martyr's life of toil and 
privation and pain, and I am ready for a martyr's death. The purity 
of my intentions, my diligence in the labors to which God has been 
pleased to call me, tlie unknown sufferings I have endured, what are 
all these? The merit and atonement and righteousness of Christ 
alone make my plea." 

In feebleness and pain he made his way to Cincinnati to meet the 
Ohio Conference. But he was too feeble to preside. Tlience he went 
to the Tennessee Conference, held in Logan County, Ky. Tlience to- 
w^ard Milledgeville, Ga., to meet the South Carolina Conference. He 
preached as he went, sitting in his wagon, often interrupted by seasons 
of coughing and hemorrhage. Thence to Albany, ^N^. Y., in May, 
1815. Thence to l!^ew Hampshire, to meet the J^ew England Confer- 
ence. Health declining, he abandoned his long journey through l^ew 
England, and returned to Philadelphia. He spent some time in 'New 
York correcting his Journal, saying, " If truth and I have been wronged, 
we have both witnessed our day of triumph." From New York 
he journeyed on to meet the Ohio Conference, at Lebanon. Here he 
had a long talk with Bishop M'Kendree. l^ext he went to the Ten- 
nessee Conference, where for the Urst time he relinquished the busi- 
ness of stationing the jDreachers. He notes, in spite of feeble health, 
"My mind enjoys great peace and divine consolation." Thence he 
turned South, traveling and preaching. One day he traveled forty 
miles, but said of it, " This will not do ; I must halt or order my 
grave^^ He reached South Carolina on the first of December, and 
was attacked by influenza about three weeks later. Consumption 
pushed the assault against his strength. Asbury turned toward Balti- 
more to meet the General Conference in May, 1816. He reached 
Michmond^ March 21, lohere he preached his last serr}ion. He was car- 
ried from the carriage to the church, and placed on a table. Sitting 
as easily as he could, he preached nearly an hour. He resumed his 
journey toward Baltimore. When he reached the house of his old 
friend, George Arnold, about twenty miles south of Fredericksbnrgh, 
in Yirginia, he was not able to proceed. He was taken from liis car- 
riage on Friday, March 29, for the last time, and on Sunday morning, 
March 31, during the hour of family worship, he was very calm and 



98 Methodist Bishops. 

peaceful. Sliortly after tlie service, as he was sitting in liis cliair, his 
head resting on the hand of his beloved attendant, Kev. J. ^Y. Bond, 
he fell asleep in Jesus. It was a quiet stepping from one world into 
another. I^othing could be more peaceful. This aged apostle, who 
had no home but in the bosom of the Church, did not lack a home in 
which to die, and the last words that fell on his ears as he went up 
from earth to Grod were the words of family worship. Though he 
had no children, except in the gospel, yet he was permitted to be cared 
for by most tender affection. The change from the love of holy men 
on earth to the love of holy angels in heaven was so slight that the 
ascending and adoring soul felt, perhaps, no shock of inexperienced 

joys. 

He was buried in Mr. Arnold's family burying-ground. But the 
General Conference, meeting in a few weeks, ordered his body placed 
beneath the j)ulpit of the Eutaw-street Church. His body belonged to 
the General Conference. His reinterment was a most solemn and im- 
posing event. Bishop MTvendree led the procession, followed by the 
members of the General Conference, and the vast concourse of weep- 
ing people. M'Kendree pronounced the oration. Over the vault is 
inscribed the following epitaph : 

SACRED 

TO THE MEMORY OF 

EEV. FRANCIS ASBURY, 

BISHOP OF THE 
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

HE WAS BORN IN ENGLAND, AUG. 20, 1745; 

ENTERED THE MINISTRY AT THE AGE OF SEVENTEEN; 

CAME A MISSIONARY TO AMERICA 1771 ; 

WAS ORDAINED BISHOP IN THIS CITY DEC. 27, 1784; 

ANNUALLY VISITED THE CONFERENCES IN THE UNITED STATES; 

WITH MUCH ZEAL CONTINUED TO " PREACH THE WORD " 

FOR MORE THAX HALF A CEXTURT; 

AND 

LITEKALLY E:^rDED HIS LABORS WITH HIS LIFE, 

NEAR FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA, 

IN THE FULL TRIUMPH OF FAITH, ON THE 31ST OF MARCH, 1816, 

AGED 70 YEARS, 7 MONTHS, AND 11 DAYS. 

HIS REMAINS WERE DEPOSITED IN THIS VAULT MAY 10, 1816, 
BY THE GENERAL CONFERENCE THEN SITTING IN THIS CITY. 

HIS JOURNALS WILL EXHIBIT TO POSTERITY HIS LABORS, 

HIS DIFFICULTIES, HIS SUFFERINGS, 

HIS PATIENCE, HIS PERSEVERANCE, HIS LOVE TO GOD AND MAN. 



Francis Asbury. 99 

The character of tliis great man is not so difficult to analyze as it is 
to present and impress. It is like a sphere, largest seen from every 
stand-point. The three j)oints through which his greatest circle is de- 
scribed are common sense, conscience, and industry. These, about 
equally mixed in friendly proportions, kept him remarkably free from 
mistakes, from sins, and from waste. E"othing left his hand too quick, 
or stuck to it too long. He tied up all the veins and arteries, so that 
no enterprise bled to death. Many men pour life enough into their 
undertakings to make them omnipotent, but they allow them to die for 
want of healing care. They waste all in the fragments. IN^ot so with 
Asbury. He so organized his force that it kept itself and helped him. 
All' his habits w^ere close and sharp. It is interesting to note that in 
1765, the year Mr. Asbury was admitted to Conference, to the 
question about endeavoring not to speak too long or too loud, was 
added ^^not lolling with your elhowsy Nothing slovenly was to pass 
into Conference. His sense always discovered the fitness of things, 
and made the most of circumstances. He ]3i"eached to a regiment of 
soldiers just starting for the front, from the words : " And the soldiers 
likewise demanded of him, saying. And what shall we do ? And he 
said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely ; 
and be content with your wages." Luke iii, 14. It was a practical ser- 
mon about the evils of war, and how to remedy them. At the close 
of the sermon the regiment filed by him. As the commander ap- 
proached, the bishop placed his hands on his head a*:id prayed* for 
him, and so with each officer, and he shook hands with every soldier. 
All were bathed in tears. It seemed like the benediction of a father, 
and the blessing of a saint. 

The supremacy of his conscience was manifest in his turning to the 
work of the ministry regardless of the criticisms of others concerning 
his parents. In a letter to his mother he writes, " As for me, I know 
what I am called to ; it is to give up all. . . . Let otliers condemn me 
as being without natural affection, stubborn, disobedient to parents, or 
what they will. It does not alter the case. It is a small matter to be 
judged of man." His elevation to the episcopate did not inflate him. 
He was oppressed with its responsibility, '' was not high-minded, but 
feared." He sought to place himself in the position of his brethren, 
and treat them as he would be treated. To gain that grace which was 



100 Methodist Bishops. 

"pure, peaceable," "without partiality," lie spent many a midniglit 
hour in agonizing prayer. This spirit made him so successful in har- 
monizing difficuhies in the Church, and in smoothing the rough places 
for the trembling feet of his brethren. He wrote to O'Kelly, a popu- 
lar and powerful presiding elder who was jealous of Asbury, and 
seeking to divide the Church, saying, " I will take my seat in counsel 
as another member, and in that point, at least, waive the claims of 
episcopacy ; yea, I will lie down and be trodden upon rather than in- 
jure one soul." He says of his distribution of time, " I am impartial. 
... I know no Maryland or Delaware after the fleshy more than Ken- 
tucky, Cumberland, Georgia, or the Carolinas. ... It is our duty to 
make particular appointments for some important charges." When 
he entered a house, every occupant received his attention. He in- 
structed the slaves and the master, the poorest and the richest, in the 
same gospel. On one occasion he says, " I was happy last evening 
with the poor slaves in Brother "Well's kitchen, while our white hroth- 
ers held a sacramental service in the front parlor up stairs." Some 
artist will yet make himself immortal by presenting this scene. 

His benevolence to his aged parents, and his devotion to the inter- 
ests of the Church, manifested their power in his perpetual celibacy. 
He puts the case very adroitly : ''If I should die in celibacy, which I 
think quite probable, I give the following reasons for what can scarcely 
be called my choice : I was called to preach in my fourteenth year ; I 
began my public exercises between sixteen and seventeen ; at twenty- 
one I entered the traveling connection ; at twenty-six I came to Amer- 
ica. Thus far I had reasons enough for a single life. It had been my 
intention to return to Europe, but the war continued, and it was ten 
years before we had settled, lasting peace. This was no time to marry 
or be given in marriage. At forty-nine I was ordained superintendent 
or bishop in America. Among the duties imposed upon me by my 
office was that of traveling extensively, and I could hardly expect to 
find a woman with grace enough to enable her to live but one week 
out of the fiftv-two with her husba^nd ; besides, what right has any man 
to take advantage of the affections of a woman, make her his wife, and 
b}' voluntary absence subvert the whole order and economy of the mar- 
riage state, by separating those whom neither God, nature, nor the 
requirements of civil society permit long to be put asunder? It 



Fkancis Asbury. 101 

is neither jnst nor generous. I may add to this, that I had hut little 
money, and with this little I administered to the necessities of a be- 
loved mother till I was fifty-seven. If I have done wrong, I hope 
God and the sex will forgive me. It is my duty now to bestow the 
pittance I have to spare upon the widows and fatherless girls and 
poor married men." This is the grimmest passage in Asbury's 
writings. If it were not for his solemn character and advanced 
bachelorhood, I should call this his model joke. It has not the 
ring of earnestness. His devotion to the Church and lack of time 
and lack of money doubtless were the determining elements in 
this problem. Filial love^ so strong in his heart, was also involved. 
He cared for his parents most tenderly. He writes his father, say- 
ing, " I last evening made arrangements for a remittance to you ; . . . 
my salary is sixty-four dollars ; I have sold my watch and library, and 
will sell my shirts before you should want. . . . Your son Francis is a 
man of honor and conscience. As my father and mother never dis- 
graced me by an act of dishonesty, I hope to echo back the same sound 
of an upright man. I am well satisfied that the Lord saw fit that you 
should be my parents rather than the king and queen, or any of the 
great." In 1Y98 he received the sad news of his father's death, and 
writes, '' I now feel myself an orphan." In 1802 Asbury received the 
intelligence of the death of his mother, and writes of her, '' She was 
of a masculine understanding. Nevertheless, ' so kindly were all the 
elements mixed in her,' that her strong and quick mind felt the sub- 
duing influence of Christian sympathy. . . . As a woman, she was 
modest, blameless ; as a mother, ardently affectionate ; as a friend, gen- 
erous, true, and constant." Once, in a letter to his mother, he said of 
his w^ork and himself, " Hard wear and hard fare ; but I am healthy 
and lean, gray-headed and dim-sighted." Once he wrote her, " I lay 
by in Virginia ; when you hear that name you w^ill love it unseen, for 
you will say, ' That is where my Frankie was sick.' " Thus he kept 
them up in his changes. And his love for them satisfied him like a 
child. 

There was a deep current of sympathy running through his nature. 
It did not break over its banks, but it was deep, strong, and perpetual. 
He seldom w^ept. But a few times tears defied his control. On one 
occasion, calling on the sister of one of the preachers, he found her 



102 Methodist Bishops. 

weeping for lier absent brother. Immediately lie thought of his own 
mother, waiting in loneliness, thinking of her far-away son, and he 
burst into tears. His sympathy usually took a ]3ractical turn, as when 
at the Western Conference he gave his watch, cloak, and shirt, to the 
poorer preachers. 

It would be inexcusable to omit particular reference to Asbury's 
scholarship. He was not trained in the schools, but it is a mistake to 
think of him as an untrained or ignorant man. He had extended prac- 
tical experience. He was pre-eminently a man of aifairs. We see 
him most of the time in this held, and, therefore, come naturally to 
think of him as a business man. But he is a scholar. He bears favor- 
able comparison with most of the college graduates of his day in the 
mere matter of book-learning. He was a thorough scholar in Latin, 
Greek, and Hebrew. He read the Scriptures in their original languages 
habitually, and with great ease. It is difficult to see how he mastered 
them. His education was very limited when he was called to the min- 
istry at the age of fourteen. His life was crowded with active duties. 
He soon had the care of a continent on his heart and hands, yet he 
did achieve high and close scholarship. Besides his knowledge of the 
dead languages, he was acquainted with several branches of polite 
literature. He was also always fully up with the history of his times. 
More than this, his literary labors far exceeded the labors of the ma- 
jority of college men. His Journals required more time and thought 
for their preparation than is required for mastering a college course of 
study. They are rough in many places, but they are often elegant, and 
always strong. It is not necessary to make allowance for the disad- 
vantages under which they were prepared. They were written " in 
log-cabins, crowded with talkative women, noisy children, and barking 
dogs ; with cold fingers, frozen ink, impracticable pens, and rumpled 
paper; and suffering from headache, teethache, chills, fever, sore 
throat, and every other form of ill that flesh is heir to." Room may 
be taken for a few sentences. After his experience in ISTew Haven, he 
writes, "ISTew Haven! thou seat of science and of sin! Can thy dry 
bones live ? O Lord, thou knowest." He describes one place in the 
South, saying, " They had more gold than, grace ; " another, " They had 
neither dollars nor discipline, being sadly deficient in both." " Boston 
is famous for poor religion and bad water." One community he dis- 



Francis Asbury. 103 

tingiiislied for " talking about religion and stealing horses." There is a 
directness and strength abont his writing that will bear examination. 

The secret of his scholarship is found in his method. He obeyed 
this rule when not traveling : " Rise at four o'clock every morning, 
spend two hours in prayer and meditation, two hours in reading and 
study, and one in recreation and conversation." Ten hours out of six- 
teen were spent in reading the Hebrew Bible and other books. He 
retired to his room at eight o'clock when not in meeting, and spent an 
hour in prayer, tlien retired. This made him a scholar. "We are not 
surprised to strike rich veins of poetry in the quartz of this rugged 
mind. It is natural for him to say of the Ohio on one occasion, " The 
great river w^as covered with a mist until nine o'clock, when the airy 
curtain rose slowly from the waters, gliding along in expanded and silent 
majesty." 

There is no low grade of culture or shallow stream of sentiment in 
these words concerning one session of the 'New York Conference, and 
his return to the country : " It would require a volume^ to tell the rest- 
less tossings I have had, the difficulties and anxieties I have felt about 
the preachers and people here and elsewhere, alternate joy and sor- 
row ; but I am done, I am gone ! New York, once more farewell ! " 
Reaching the country, he says, " How sweet to me are all the calm scenes 
of life which now surround me on every side ! The quiet country 
houses, the Helds and orchards bearing the promise of a fruitful year, 
the flocks and herds, the hills and vales and dewy meads, the gliding 
streams and murmuring brooks, and thou, too. Solitude, with thy at- 
tendants. Silence and Meditation, how dost thou solace my pensive mind 
after the tempest of fear and care and tumult and talk of the noisy, 
bustling city." 

In reviewing such a life as this one cannot avoid the conviction 
that Francis Asbury w^as the human 'instrument for the creation of 
the Methodist episcopacy. It was a great work, and required a 
transcendent character. The assumptions necessary to originate and 
sanctify the prerogatives of the episcopacy were possible only in the 
presence of the actual kingship in labor and in sacrifice. When 
Asbury's peers saw him preaching, exhorting, praying, riding, sacri- 
ficing — more than all others — they naturally accepted his leadership. 
Being servant of all he came to be greatest of all. After a hundred 



104 Methodist Bishops. 

years of experience it remains true that greatness in the offices of 
the Church consists in the greatness of the service. The forces that 
created the Methodist episcopacy can perpetuate it. While an Asbury 
sits on the bench it will be revered by the Church. 

This great apostle of American Methodism, this pioneer bishop of 
an endless circuit and continental diocese, is a worthy man to be the 
f oimder of a great Church, whether we measure him by the girth of his 
intellect, the clarity of his vision, the wisdom of his statesmanship, the 
variety and magnitude of his plans, the success of his enterprises, the 
productiveness of his brain, the accumulation of his study, the depths 
of Ms philosophy, the vigorous beauty of his imagination, the practi- 
cality of his sense, the certainty of his judgment, the elevation of his 
morals, the purity of his religion, the poise of his piety, the heroism of 
his sacrifices, the freshness of his sympathies, the warmth of his 
affection, the endurance of his purposes, the power of his faith, the 
dominance of his conscience, the regularity of his benevolence, the 
ubiquity of his vigilance, the tirelessness of his industry, or the 
creations of his genius. Measured by what he did, Francis Asbary is 
without a peer in the religious annals of America. 




;:^,rtiri;-sc 



Sc= ^ -by-AJSSitdbls- 



fBDSKKDlP" WtHATJC® AH, 



Richard Whatcoat, 



BY REV. LUKE H. WISEMAN, A.M. 



THE name of Richard Whatcoat is one which must ever occupy a 
prominent place in the annals of Methodism. He was one of the 
missionaries appointed by Wesley, and was elected one of the superin- 
tendents at the General Conference held May, 1800. He was the first 
member of the episcopate who exchanged mortality for life. With 
the exception of a brief autobiography, drawn up in the sixty-eighth 
year of his age, comparatively few memorials are left of this holy man. 
He kept no journal, and but few of his letters have been preserved ; 
but his memory is precious, as that of one who " walked with God." 

He was born February 23, 1Y36, in the Parish of Quinton, in the 
County of Gloucester, England. 

His parents were members of the Established Church ; his father 
died while comparatively young, leaving a widow and five children. 

They enjoyed what was rare in those days, the ministry of a con- 
verted and evangelical clergyman, who, besides preaching twice on the 
Lord's day, frequently held meetings in his parsonage house and other 
places. " I believe," he writes, " my mother walked in the form and 
enjoyed the power of godliness more than thirty years, and died in the 
triumph of faith in the jear 17Y1. The children were all brought 
under a wonderful work of grace about the same time of life, begin- 
ning with the eldest and so down to the youngest." At the age of 
thirteen Richard was apprenticed to Mr. Joseph Jones, of Birming- 
ham, who shortly afterward removed to the neighboring town of Dar- 
laston, in which vicinity both John and Charles Wesley were assailed 
by furious mobs, and were more than once in imminent danger of 
their lives. During the eight years of his apprenticeship " I was 
never heard," he relates, "to swear a vain oath, nor was ever given 
to lying, gaming, drunkenness, or any other presumptuous sin, but 
was commended for my honesty and sobriety, and from my child- 
hood I had, at times, serious thoughts on death and eternity." 



108 Methodist Bishops. 

Removing at the age of twenty-one to the neighboring town of 
Wednesbuiy, he was placed in a family " where nothing was wanting 
but the fear of God," and where he f onnd himself " in continual dan- 
ger of losing the little religion he had." From this abode of worldly 
plenty and spiritnal apathy he soon removed ; "A kind providence 
directed me to a family that feared God and w^ronght righteousness." 
With them he attended the services of the Methodists, and after five 
months " the word was made light and power " to his soul. 

"When the preacher was describing the fall of man, I think he 

J. CD J 

spoke as if he had known every thing that was in my heart. When he 
described the nature and fruits of faith, I was conscious I had it not ; 
and though I believed all the Scripture to be of God, yet I had not 
the marks of a Christian believer, and I was convinced that if I died 
in the state wherein I then was, I should be miserable forever. Yet I 
could not conceive how I, who had lived so sober a life, could be the 
chief of sinners. But this was not long ; for I no sooner discovered the 
spirituality of the law, and the enmity that was in my heart against 
God, than I could heartily agree to it. The thoughts of death and 
judgment now struck me with terrible fear. I had a keen apprehen- 
sion of the wrath of God, and of the fiery indignation due to sinners ; 
so that I could have wished myself to be annihilated, or to be the 
vilest creature, if I could but escape judgment. 

" In this state I was when one told me, ' I know God, for Christ's 
sake, has forgiven all my sins, and his Spirit witnesseth with my spirit 
that I am a child of God.' This gave me a good deal of encourage- 
ment, and I determined never to rest until I had a testimony in myself 
that my sins also were forgiven. But in the meantime, such was the 
darkness I was in, such my consciousness of guilt and the just dis- 
pleasure of almighty God, that I could find no rest day nor night either 
for soul or body ; so that life was a burden, and I became regardless of 
all things under the sun. Now all my virtues, which I had some 
reliance on once, appeared as filthy, and many discouraging thoughts 
were put into my soul ; as, ' Many are called, but few chosen ;' ' Hath 
not the potter power over the clay ? ' from which it was suggested 
to me that I was made to dishonor, and so must inevitably perish." 

After some months of this spiritual anguish, light broke in 
suddenly upon him. The story is best continued in his own words : 



ElCHAKD WilATCOAT. 109 

" On September 3, 1758, being overwhelmed with guilt and fear, as 
I was reading it was as if one whispered to me, ' Thou hadst better 
read no more ; for the more thou readest, the more thou wilt know ; 
and he that knoweth his Lord's will and doeth it not, shall be beaten 
with many stripes.' I paused a little, and then resolved, ' Let the con- 
sequence be what it may, I will proceed.' When I came to those 
words, * The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, tlmt we are 
the children of God ;' as I fixed my eyes upon them, in a moment my 
darkness was removed, and the Spirit did bear witness with my spirit, 
that I was a child of God. 

'' In the same instant I was filled with unspeakable peace and joy 
in believing ; and all fear of death, judgment, and hell suddenly van- 
ished aw^ay. Before this I was kept awake by anguish and fear, so 
that I could not get an hour's sound sleep in a night. !Now I wanted 
not sleep, being abundantly refreshed by contemplating the rich dis- 
play of God's mercy in adopting so unworthy a creature as I was to 
be an heir of the kingdom of heaven." 

The way by which this sincere and conscientious young man was 
conducted to sjjiritual light and peace, was the way by which most of 
"Wesley's preachers were led. Weeks and months of distress were 
succeeded by the joy of pardon, coming suddenly as a flash of light- 
ning, but not as suddenly disappearing. Yet the young believer soon 
entered again into doubt and perplexity. '' This joy and peace con- 
tinued about three weeks ; after which it w^as suggested to me, ' Hast 
thou not deceived thyself ? ' This threw me into great heaviness, but 
it did not continue long ; for as I gave myself unto prayer, and to 
reading and hearing the word of God at all opportunities, my evidence 
became clearer and clearer, my faith and love stronger and stronger." 
Still he saw that he was " not wholly sanctified." Evils still appeared 
in his heart, which hindered him in holy exercises, and he could 
have no peace till they were rooted out. He studied the promises of 
sanctification ; he saw " it was the gift of God, and consequently to 
be received by mere faith ; " and at length the joyful hour arrived. 
'' After many sharp and painful conflicts, and many gracious visita- 
tions, on March 28, 1Y61, my spirit was drawn out and engaged in 
wrestling with God for about two hours, in a manner I never did be- 
fore. Suddenly I was stripped of all but love. I was all love, and 



110 Methodist Bishops. 

prayer, and praise ; and in this happy state, rejoicing evermore, and in 
every thing giving thanks, I continued for some years, wanting 
nothing for sonl or body more than I received from day to day." 

During these years Mr. Whatcoat continued in business in "Wednes- 
bury, and served the Church as band-leader, as class-leader, and as 
steward. 

In 1Y66 business took him to London, where he was laid prostrate 
for six months with fever. Returning to Wednesbury, he " began to 
hold religious meetings in the country places adjacent, and exhort and 
preach to the people," in which work he found such encouragement 
that he resolved to give liimseK wholly to the work of the ministry. 
"Therefore," he writes, "about July, 1769, I informed Mr. John 
Pawson, the assistant preacher, of my intention to join the travehng 
connection, if he and the Conference thought proper." It may be 
inferred that Whatcoat was now a widower ; for 'Q.ye years later the 
name of Charles Whatcoat appears among the boys admitted to Wes- 
ley's school for the sons of the preachers at Kingswood.* 

In those days the tedious system of examinations now prescribed 
to candidates by the English Conference did not exist. ^ 

Mr. Pawson went to Leeds to attend the Conference, and " from 
Leeds he wrote to let me know that he had proposed me at the Con- 
ference, and that I was accepted as a probationer, and stationed on 
Oxfordshire Circuit." To his appointed station he accordingly went. 
The brevity of his record is instructive, and characteristic of old 
Methodist times. " Having settled my temporal affairs -with all the 
expedition I could, I went into the circuit, where I traveled until 
about Christmas." 

Mr. Whatcoat was not a novice when he received from his breth- 
ren the call to devote himself to the work of the ministry. He was 
thirty-three years of age ; and a course of years spent in various de- 
partments of church service had prepared him, more fully than most, 
for the duties to which he was henceforth to be devoted. 

His reception in the circuit encouraged him. " I was received," 
he relates, " far better than I expected, and I found that affection for 
the people which never since wore off." His circuit embraced the 
entire county of Oxford, and part of his native county of Gloucester. 

* Minutes of Conference, vol. i, p. 113. 



ElCHARD WhATCOAT. Ill 

But he only remained there a few months, when he was transferred 
to Bedfordshire, in which circuit he remained till the Conference of 
1771. Methodism had already gained a footing in that part of En- 
gland ; the roads were comparatively good, and the people kind and 
hospitable, and the period is described as one of peace and harmony. 

Yery different w^ere his next two circuits, of which he thus speaks 
in his autobiography: "At the Conference of 1771 I was appointed 
for Enniskillen, in the north of Ireland. Now my trials came on ; for 
I had a great aversion to sea voyages. But what troubled me most 
w^as, when I called to see my dear old motlier, to find she was very 
far advanced in a di'opsy. I stayed with her a fortnight, and then 
took my final farewell of her. She knew and loved the work I was 
engaged in, and therefore gave me up willingly. She lived but a few 
weeks after. This circuit took us eight weeks to go through it ; we 
commonly preached two or three times a day. By this year's labors 
and sufferings my strength was exhausted ; but what sweetened labor 
and made affliction tolerable was a blessed revival, for w^e had nearly 
three hundred souls turned to the Lord this year." The next year he 
was appointed to Armagh ; but before he could reach the place he be- 
came alarmingly ill, doubtless as the result of scanty fare and con- 
stant exposure. A kind family took charge of him for three months ; 
but his removal to his circuit proved to be premature. " Going out 
before I had sufficiently recovered my strength, the cold seized upon 
me, and caused such a humor to settle in my legs, that for some time 
I could not set my feet to the ground.. But my mind being set upon 
my work, I little regarded the pain of my body, so long as I was able 
to sit on my horse, or stand and speak to the people." His life was 
despaired of ; but after a few months health returned, and the self- 
denying missionary was again upon his rounds. 

He came to London to attend the Conference of 1773, when " an 
easy, agreeable, and profitable station " was found for him, Pembroke, 
in Wales, where the difference of language prevented him from ad- 
dressing any but the few English who at that day were settled there. 
Two more years were spent in another Welsh circuit, where English 
was understood by only a small portion of the people ; " some fruit 
appeared here," he states, " but nothing great." 

These were years of comparatively easy work, and a life which 



112 Methodist Bishops. 

might otherwise have been sacrificed, was spared to render invaluable 
services through a long series of subsequent years. 

In 1776 he received an appointment to Cornwall West — a wide 
circuit where all his powers would be brought into requisition. He 
had to traverse almost the entire county ; but " the congregations and 
Societies were large and lively." The following year was spent in 
the same county, where his '' heart was almost broke " on account 
of the conduct of some disorderly members. Two years of labor in 
the Wiltshire Circuit followed. In addition to the chalky uplands of 
that county, the circuit extended a hundred miles southward, and in- 
cluded the Isle of Wight. Here there was an extensive revival of 
religion; Captain Webb and Mr. Robert Carr Brackenbury, a gentle- 
man of large property who also shared the toils of an itinerant, being 
united with Whatcoat in these happy services. The historian of 
Methodism in the Isle of Wight, remarking on Whatcoat, says that 
" he was sent to the Church as a sample, to show to what a life of 
peace and holiness Christians may attain on earth, where sincerity, 
privation, love of divine communion, and humble and active faith, do 
meet and center.""^ In 1780 his appointment was to !^^orthampton, 
which had formed part of the Bedfordshire Circuit, in which he had 
traveled ten years before, where his heart was refreshed at witnessing 
the progress which had been made in the interval. 

After a year at Canterbury he spent a year in Norfolk. Here the 
poverty of the people was extreme, so that he sold his horse and 
walked the Circuit ; but he had his reward in witnessing, as was hkely 
with such an example of self-denial, "great harmony and some in- 
crease." His last English circuit was Norwich, where Adam Clarke 
was one of his colleagues. The distinguished commentator has left on 
record a brief characteristic note, in the following terms : '' Whatcoat 
was a very holy man of God, a good and sound preacher, but not of 
splendid abilities. He was diligent and orderly in his work, and a fine 
example of practical piety in all his conduct."f 

The Norwich Society had given Mr. Wesley more trouble and 
anxiety than almost any other. More than once he had expressed 
his determination " either to mend them or end them ;" but the year 

. * Dyson's "Methodism in the Isle of Wight," pp. 91, 95. 
f Life of "Adam Clarke," vol. i, p. 19*7. 



ElCHAKD WlTATCOAT. 113 

spent in that citj by Mr. Wliatcoat was passed in peace. He does not 
appear to have perceived the pre-eminent ability of his yonng colleague, 
Adam Clarke, merely mentioning him with another as "two young 
men of promising abilities." The writer of this sketch well remem- 
bers William Lorkin, an old class-leader of Norwich, and the historian 
of Methodism in that city, who was accustomed to speak in enthusi- 
astic terms of the year which " Mr. Wliatcoat and young Mr. Clarke " 
spent in that ancient city. His admiration of the former had not 
abated, although nearly half a century had passed away. In his "his- 
tory " the following passage occurs. " In August, 1783, Mr. Richard 
Whatcoat was appointed to the JSTorwich Circuit, and w^as made a special 
blessing to many. He was an Israelite indeed, in whom there was no 
guile. Such profound and amiable piety I remembered never to 
have w^itnessed in any man."'^ 

Such a testimony forms an appropriate conclusion to the record, 
necessarily very brief, of fifteen years spent in the Methodist circuits of 
England. On leaving ^Norwich and the English circuit work, he left 
on record the following meditation : — • 

" July 28th, 1784. Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful of 
him? My God, thou hast been very gracious to me, thy servant, 
through every period of my life. I bless thee for that salvation thou 
hast made known to me, and for the dispensation of the gospel thou 
hast committed to me, and for that success given to my small endeiiY- 
ors ; for that perfect resignation thou hast given me to every dispen- 
sation of thy providence." 

In the Minutes of the British Conference of 1784 " America " 
reappears as one of the stations, after having been unmentioned for 
several years. At that Conference Mr. Wesley declared his intention 
of sending Dr. Coke and some other preachers to that country. What- 
coat, who was present, thus describes the mental process which ended 
in his becoming a volunteer for the service : " At first it appeared to 
me as though I was not concerned in the matter. But soon my mind 
was drawn to meditate on the subject ; the power of God came upon 
me, and my heart was remarkably melted with love to God and man. 
A prospect of some troubles I w^as like to go through, if I engaged in 
that part of the Lord's work, appeared to me, upon which I set apart 

* Lorkin's " Methodism in Norwich," p. 25. 



114 Methodist Bishops. 

a day for fasting and prayer ; after which, seeing nothing in my way 
bnt the cross and my own inability for so great a work, I offered my- 
self, if my dear aged father, John Wesley, and my brethren thought 
proper." His offer, together with that of Mr. Thomas Yasey, was 
accej)ted, and the two proceeded together from Leeds to London and 
Bristol on horseback, an enchanting ride at that season of the year, 
of three hundred miles. They visited the Societies as they passed 
along. Friends abounded in kindness ; so that when they embarked 
nothing was wanting to make their voyage "as comfortable as the 
nature of things would admit." 

At Bristol they were met by Mr. "Wesley and Dr. Coke, and 
received ordination as presbyters. In vindication of this act, which, to 
this day, English Churchmen regard as grossly irregular, Wesley pub- 
lished a letter, in which he pleaded, that America being now politically 
severed from England, he was at liberty to do what in England w^ould 
be a violation of law. As to the scriptural validity of the orders con- 
ferred by him on the two brethren, he felt no doubt whatever ; having 
been convinced for many years that " bishops and presbyters are the 
same order, and consequently have the same right to ordain." He 
objected to the proposal that his American preachers should be ordained 
by Anglican bishops, because, "if they would ordain them now, they 
would also ex23ect to govern them ; " adding, ''As our American breth- 
ren are now totally disentangled both from the State and from the 
English hierarchy, we dare not entangle them again either with the 
one or the other." - Acting on these convictions, Wesley, assisted by 
one or two other clergymen, on the first of September ordained the 
brethren Whatcoat and Yasey " to act as elders by baptizing and ad- 
ministering the Lord's Supper." Wesley furnished them with letters 
of introduction ; he also prepared at this time an abridgment of the 
Book of Common Prayer for the use of the congregations in America, 
and further ordained or set apart his copresbyter. Dr. Coke, to be a 
" joint superintendent with Mr. Asbury over the brethren in I^orth 
America." Their embarkation did not take place tilL the 18th, when 
Coke, Whatcoat, and Yasey, sailed from King Road, Bristol. A voyage 
to America was then a very different thing from what it is in these 
days of rapid and easy transit. Ln Coke's Journal there is a minute 

* Wesley's "Works," Am. 8vo. edit., vol. vii, p. 219. 



KiCHAED WhATCOAT. 115 

account of the incidents of the passage, which occupied six weeks, 
passed, after the first few days of sea-sickness, " on the whole verj 
agreeably." On the 3d of November they landed at New York, and 
on the following day, Friday, they set out for Philadelphia in the stage- 
wagon, reaching that city on Saturday evening. Dr. Coke preached ; 
Whatcoat and Yasey exercised their newly given authority by assist- 
ing to administer the sacrament to some hundreds. This was suc- 
ceeded by a love-feast, '' and a more comfortable time," says Whatcoat, 
" I had not enjoyed for some years." 

At the time of his landing in America Mr. Whatcoat had reached, 
if he had not passed, his prime. There is a portrait of him, '' aged 
forty-six," in the '' Arminian Magazine " for 1781, which Father 
Boehm has pronounced a correct likeness, allowing for difference of 
years. The face is roundish, the eyes dark and brilliant ; the dark hair 
is allowed to grow long behind, but cut straight across the forehead, 
after the fashion of those days. Dr. Laban Clark describes him as 
"Something above the middle size, but not corpulent. His manly 
form, plain attire, and dignified manners, gave him a venerable appear- 
ance. His countenance told of a well-disciplined mind, and a heart 
habitually kept in contact with the gracious influences of the gos- 
pel." ^ The plain attire thus referred to is more particularly described 
by Father Boehm as "in the Methodist-minister style, a shad-belly 
coat, and vest buttoned simg up to the neck." He further relates that 
" a few years before death Bishop Whatcoat lost his hair, so that he 
became entirely bald ; some time after, it began to grow, and came 
out thick and beautiful, so that when he died he had a fine head of 
dark hair, not even sprinkled with gray."f When he arrived in 
America his preaching powers were at their best. " He could melt 
and move an audience," says Boehm, " as few men ever did." His 
sainthness of character, in which he resembled Fletcher, shone in the 
kindling expression of his countenance as he expatiated on the great 
themes of his ministry. " With such force of argument and all-sub- 
duing pathos did he urge holiness of heart and life," says Dr. Clark, 
" that the whole congregation were moved as the leaves of a forest by 
the power of a mighty wind." ;(: " His preaching," remarks Dr. Bangs, 

* Sprague's "Annals of the American Pulpit," p. lOV. 

f Boehm's " Keminiscences," p. 142. JSprague, p. 101. 



116 Methodist Bishops. 

^' is said to liave been generally attended with remarkable nnction from 
the Holj One. The softness of his persuasions won npon the affec- 
tions of the heart, while the rich flow of gospel truth which dropped 
from his lips enhghtened the understanding." '-^ Such was his acquaint- 
ance with the Scriptures that he was called a liA'ing concordance ; and 
when he attended service as a hearer, he nsuallj arrived half an hour 
before time, and occupied himself in reading his pocket Testament. 
Another witness testifies, '' Of all who preached sanctification, What- 
coat was pre-eminent. He did, indeed, walk in the light of God's 
countenance, enjoying the blessing of perfect love more than forty 
years." f " The distinguishing trait of his character," says Dr. Bangs, 
" was a meekness and modesty of spirit which, united with simplicity 
of intention and gravity of dej)ortment, commended him as a jDattern 
worthy of imitation. So dear is he in the recollection of those who, 
from personal intercourse, best knew and appreciated his worth, that 
I have heard many such say, that they would give much could they 
possess themselves of a correct resemblance of him npon canvas." :{: 
Such was the man who landed npon our shores in company with Dr. 
Coke — a living embodiment of the qualities which St. Panl declares it 
to be necessary that a bishop should have. 

His strength lay not in intellectual greatness, or in acquired learn- 
ing, but in the meekness of an utterly unworldly spirit, in holy self- 
denial, in habitual purity of heart. Under the guise of a modest and 
unassuming manner he also possessed, like his old friend and class- 
mate, Asbury, though in an inferior degree, the gift and faculty of 
authority ; and, doubtless, it was the perception of this which, added to 
the recommendation of Mr. "Wesley, led to his being elected to the 
episcopal office. 

That election did not take place, however, until Mr. Whatcoat had 
been more than fifteen years in the country. At the General Confer- 
ence of 1784, just before his arrival, it had been enacted that no per- 
son should be elected superintendent or elder without the consent of 
a majority of the Conference ;' and, although the brethren might not 
have objected to Whatcoat as an elder, they were not prepared to sanc- 
tion AYesley's recommendation of him in 1786 to the episcopal office. 

♦Baxgs's '' HistoiT," vol. ii, pp. 188, 189. f " Life of James Quimi," p. 262. 

ifBANGs's "History," vol. ii, p. 189. 



ElCIIARD WlIATCOAT. 117 

'• The chief reason," says Dr. Abel Stevens, " for declining the elec- 
tion of Whatcoat was the apprehension of the Conference that if he 
were elected Wesley Avonld recall Asbnry to England." Coke, who 
was present, reminded the Conference that they had promised, during 
Mr. Wesley's lifetime, as his sons in the gospel, to obey his com- 
mands." The reply was, in substance, that the pledge was unfor- 
tunate, and that they who gave it could revoke it. To this reply 
Asbury, who had never approved of the pledge being given, offered 
no objection, and Whatcoat himself concurred. 

On Christmas-eve, 1784, a few weeks only after his arrival at l^ew 
York, a Conference, hastily summoned by Coke and Asbury, opened 
its sittings in Baltimore. Several days had been spent in preparation 
by Asbury and the three brethren whom Wesley had just sent from 
England ; and the result may be given in Whatcoat's own words : " We 
began our Conference, in which we agreed to form a Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, in which the liturgy (as presented by the Rev. John 
Wesley) should be read, sacraments to be administered by a superin- 
tendent, elders, deacons, who shall be ordained by a presbytery, 
according to the episcopal form, as prescribed in the Rev. J. Wesley's 
prayer-book." Accordingly on Christmas-day Asbury was ordained 
deacon, on the next day elder, and on the day following super- 
intendent, or bishop. On subsequent days fourteen were ordained 
deacons or elders ; Whatcoat's ordination in England seems to have 
been considered sufficient. 

From this time till the year 1800 this holy and laborious servant 
of the Church was occupied partly in circuit duty, but chiefly in 
discharging the functions of presiding elder, in the various districts 
to which he was successively appointed. "Preaching almost every 
day," he writes, " and sometimes twice a day, with the administering 
of the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper, kept me in full 
employ." On one day he baptized thirty-six children at morning 
service, and fifty at another place in the afternoon. In September, 
1Y86, he received an appointment to Philadelphia Circuit, and in 
the May following to Baltimore ; but in a few Aveeks circuit duties 
were exchanged for those of the eldership. 

During the summer of 1789 he traveled with Asbury to ^ew 
York, returning by 'New Jersey and Philadelphia — a journey which, 



118 Methodist Bishops. 

with dailj preacliing, occupied about four montlis, and was succeeded 
by another journey of similar length, in the same company, through 
Virginia and aS"orth Carolina to Charleston. In February, 1Y90, a 
Conference was held in Baltimore, ''where the Lord was present 
in power; the saints were glad, and the wicked were offended.'' 
In March they held Conference in Georgia, traveling afterward 
through Kentucky, where they were in danger from Indians, so that 
watch had to be kept all night. "AYe traveled in jeopardy," says 
Whatcoat ; '' but I think I never traveled with more solemn awe and 
serenity of mind. As we fed our horses three times a day, so we 
had prayer three times." On one occasion, " suspecting danger from 
the savages, we traveled one night and two days without lying down 
to rest." Similar journeys occupied the time till May, 1791, when 
Conference was held in ls"ew York, and Mr. Whatcoat was appointed 
to labor in that city. There he remained till September of the following 
year, and for two years subsequently in the city of Baltimore. In both 
these cities they had " many refreshing times, and were much united." 

In the fall of 1794 he was appointed presiding elder in Maryland, 
and during the next two years many of the circuits were visited 
in an extraordinary manner. "Many were suddenly struck with 
convictions, and fell to the ground in a state of insensibility, after 
awhile standing up and praising God as though heaven had come 
into their souls ; others were as much concerned for a clean heart, 
and as fully delivered." 

After the Baltimore General Conference of 1796 Mr. AYhatcoat 
accompanied Coke and Asbury through Virginia, where he received 
an appointment as presiding elder over a district which embraced 
thirty counties. Great revivals occurred. " But," says the diary, 
" the slave-trade seems to hinder the progress of Christianity in these 
reo;ions." 

In the autumn of 1798 he had an equally extensive district in 
Xorth Carolina, and found "a few precious souls even here also." 
" I filled up my time," he writes, " with a good degree of peace and 
consolation." "With Jesse Lee and YTilliam M'Kendree he attended 
Conference in Maryland, on the 1st of May, 1800 ; and during the 
next week, at the General Conference held in Baltimore, he was 
elected bishop. 



ElCHARD WhATCOAT. 119 

The entry in his diary is characteristic of his self-forgetfulness 
and humility. During that Conference a great awakening took place 
in Baltimore, and the new bishop appears to have thought much more 
of the great work of God then in progress than of the dignity with 
which he had himself been invested. " At our General Conference held 
at Baltimore, in Maryland, May 6, 1800, I was elected and ordained to 
the episcopal office. We had a most blessed time and much preach- 
ing, fervent prayers, and strong exhortations through the city, while 
the high praises of a glorious God reverberated from street to street, 
and from house to house, which greatly alarmed the citizens. It was 
thought that not less than two hundred were converted during the 
sitting of our Conference." 

Asbury's account of the Conference is much more business-like. 
" We had much talk but little work : two days were spent in consider- 
ing about Dr. Coke's return to Europe ; part of two days more on 
Richard Whatcoat, for a bishop ; and one day in raising the salaries of 
itinerant preachers from sixty-four to eighty dollars per year. We 
had one hundred and sixteen members present. On the 18th of May, 
1800, Elder Whatcoat was ordained to the office of a bishop, after 
being elected by a majority of four votes more than Jesse Lee." '^ 

The narrowness of the majority, and the two days spent in delib- 
eration, are indications of the keenness w^ith which this election was 
contested. Asbury's declining health rendered a new election neces- 
sary ; and there can be no doubt that Lee had entertained the expec- 
tation of being chosen ; moreover, his disappointment at the result was 
no secret. !Nor was such an expectation unnatural. He was one of 
the foremost spirits of his time, full of vivacity and humor, laborious 
and self-denying. A stanch supporter of the primitive simplicity of 
Methodism, and a pioneer to whose zealous tenacity of purpose and 
fearless energy ISTew England Methodism owes, under God, its exist- 
ence, it is not surprising that while Whatcoat was elected by a ballot 
of fifty-nine votes, Lee should have received as many as fifty-five. 
It was further debated whether the new bishop should be only an 
assistant to Asbury, and in the absence of his principal should have 
power to station the preachers only with the advice and concurrence 
of a committee appointed by an Annual Conference. The decision 

* Asbury's "Journal," vol. ii, p. 451. 



120 Methodist Bishops. 

was, tliat tliey should be in all respects equal; and on tlie IStli of 
May tlie new bishop was consecrated as a joint superintendent with 
Asbury by prayer and the imposition of the hands of Bishops Coke 
and Asbury, assisted by some elders."^ 

Within a fortnight of his election to the episcopal office Bishop 
AYliatcoat was engaged in holding his first Conference, at Duck Creek 
Cross Eoads, in Delaware. " This," he writes, " was a glorious time ; 
such a spirit of faith, prayer, and zeal rested on the preachers and 
people, that it exceeded any thing of the kind I ever saw before. 
O the strong cries, groans, and agonies of the mourners ! enough to 
pierce the hardest heart ; but when the Deliverer set their souls at 
liberty, their ecstasies of joy were inexpressibly great, so that the 
high praises of the Redeemer's name sounded through the town, until 
solemnity appeared on every countenance ; the effect of which was, that 
on the Thursday following one hundred and fifteen persons joined the 
Society in that town, while the divine flame spread greatly through 
the adjacent Societies." After this congenial commencement we 
find him at the New York Conference in three weeks, where " a few 
souls were converted ; " thence 'Q.ve hundred and ninety miles by a 
circuitous route to Lynn, Mass., where Conference opened on the 18th 
of July, and revealed " a promising ap]3earance of a good work in these 
Eastern States." " From thence," continues the bishop, "we passed 
through Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Mary- 
land, Yirginia, and Tennessee, to Bethel, in Kentucky, a course of one 
thousand three hundred miles. Here we held a little Conference on 
the sixth and seventh of October." On the 19tli of the same month, 
with Asbury and M'Kendree, he was preaching at Nashville, and on 
the following day "we attended the Presbyterian sacramental meeting, 
wdiicli continued four days and nights." The three Methodist min- 
isters were requested to address the communicants ; " the power of the 
Lord was present to wound and to heal ; several found peace that 
evening." A ride of two hundred and twenty miles through drench- 
ing rain brought the two bishops to Knoxville, Tennessee ; but, says 
"Whatcoat, "it w^as trying to our delicate constitutions to encamp on 
the wet ground in the night, the wind and rain beating hard upon us." 
A similar ride of three hundred and forty miles brought them to 

*Bangs's "History M. E. Church," vol. ii, p. 93. 



RiCHAED WHATCOAT. 121 

Augusta. " But O ! " exclaims our diarist, " what mountains and 
rocks we passed over." However, as they preached here and there to 
small companies in their solitary way, they were " comforted on seeing 
and hearing of tlie j^rosperity of Zion," and a farther journey of three 
hundred miles brought them in safety, preaching every day on their 
route, to Camden in South Carolina, where Conference was opened 
" in Smith's house " on the first of January, 1801. 

On his eastward ride thence Bishop Whatcoat makes one of the 
very few entries respecting his reading. It is characteristic of the 
•man, of his singleness of aim and purpose, and of (it may be said with- 
out offense) the limited range of his studies. "I read a part of 
Prince's ' Christian History,' containing accounts of the revivals and 
propagation of religion in Great Britain and America for the year 
1743. Its features, tendencies, and effects were similar to what has 
appeared in our day." He further alludes to some observations of 
Jonathan Edwards, in his well-known sermon on the Distinguishing 
Marks of the Spirit of God, pointing out resemblances between the 
effects produced in 1625 during revivals in Scotland, and those which 
had occurred in ISTew England in his own time. Bishop Whatcoat was 
remarkable for the intense concentration of all his powers on one 
object — the salvation of souls and the sanctification of believers, 
according to the type and pattern with which his own experience 
had happily rendered him familiar. 

The year 1801 was spent principally in company with Asbury, in 
traveling through the Southern States. On the 8th of May they reached 
Baltimore, he having traveled in the twelve months since his conse- 
cration to the episcopal office, according to his own computation — and 
he was remarkably exact in computing and registering distances — not 
less than four thousand one hundred and eighty-four miles. Their 
stay in Baltimore was brief indeed. After three days we find the 
indefatigable servants of the Church again in the saddle, passing 
through Delaware and Pennsylvania, and recording " a most glorious 
revival of religion on this peninsula ; on two circuits, not less than a 
thousand on each circuit joined the Society in one year, and most of 
them found peace with God." After the Philadelphia Conference, in 
June, Asbury being ill, Whatcoat proceeded alone, holding Conferences 
at Kew York, and at Lynn, Mass. ; thence along the shores of Lakes 



122 Methodist Bishops. 

Erie and Ontario, and returning in company with Sylvester HntcL.- 
inson, to Frederick, Md., where Asbnrj rejoined them. "We 
formed a plan,- ' says Asbury, " for our future journeyings and labors ; 
they to visit Maryland, by the way of Baltimore and Annapolis, and 
thence on to Richmond and the towns on the route to Camden, in 
South Carolina, and southward to Georgia : I, in company with 
]^icholas Snethen, go out to the Western Conference." ^'' This plan 
was carried out, and at the close of October Whatcoat and Hutch- 
inson again met Asbury in Georgia, where a further campaign was 
planned. Before starting, Whatcoat preached in the new and elegant 
church at Augusta ; but, says Asbury, " I heard of no conversions ; 
the time for these has not yet come." f The arrangement was, that 
Whatcoat should go through eastern, and Asbury through western, 
Georgia. 

The eastern part of the State was very thinly settled; in some 
parts the people had not heard a sermon for twelve months ; in other 
places fever prevailed, and great depression. At Savannah he was 
greatly afflicted by seeing, in utter ruin, the Orphan House, built by 
Whitefield sixty years before ! And riding on through a lone country, 
much of which was under water, and inhabited by negroes who worked 
in the rice-fields, he came to Charleston, and thence to Camden, where 
Conference was opened on the 1st of January, 1803. Up to this time, 
or nearly so, the two bishops had pursued their journeys together, and 
even when not traveling exactly the same road, their meetings w^ere 
frequent. The work extended so rapidly, however, that it became 
necessary to divide their labors. "We shall not be able to meet 
all the Conferences if we keep together," Asbury wrote to Coke, 
" though our bones were brass and our flesh iron. The Conferences 
are extended near one thousand three hundred miles along our world, 
besides the Western Conference, which will call our attention every 
year, from seven to eight or nine hundred miles from the coast." J 
What would he have said could he have foreseen the ninety-three 
Conferences of the present time! Yet, notwithstanding the geo- 
graphical extension of the work, the advance of practical science 
renders its supervision a much easier matter now, so far as the mere 

* Asbury's "Journal," vol. ili, p. 32. flbid., p. 40. 

^"Methodist Magazine," 1802, p. 217. 



Richard Whatcoat. 123 

distances are concerned, than at any former period. But how monot- 
onous and dull is onr present mode of being whirled through the 
country, compared with the romance of the days of the rifle, the ax, 
and the saddle-bags ! 

Bishop Whatcoat now began to feel the infirmities of age. A con- 
stitution naturally robust had been debilitated by hardships and 
exposures in Ireland, and being now in his sixty-seventh year, a contin- 
uance of such journeys as he had recently undertaken was impossible. 
Yet during the first six months of 1803 his journeys were of consid- 
erable length, although frequently taken in great bodily pain. Con- 
ferences were held — in March, at Petersburgh, where a service which 
began at eleven and ended at nine at night was held in the woods, and 
many were converted ; and in April, at Baltimore. On April 6th this 
entry occnrs : " In the last twelve months I have traveled about three 
thousand seven hundred and seven miles, and in the sixty-seventh year 
of my age, though I have had considerable afflictions which have 
greatly shaken this house of clay." Notwithstanding, we find him 
starting on the lltli with Asbury on a three-weeks' journey to a Con- 
ference in Delaware, "where we had a very large gathering of 
preachers and people, and were indulged with the privilege of holding 
our Conference in the Friends' Meeting-house ; " and from thence to 
Philadelphia, 'New York, and Boston, where Conference was opened 
on the 9tli of June. 

Acting on x\-sbury's advice the venerable man now entered into a 
period of comparative rest. His symptoms were serious, and riding 
on horseback was all but impossible. Yet his preaching was attended 
with extraordinary power. In May of this year, as he was preaching 
at Dover from the words, " Be clothed with humility," such was the 
effect of the sermon that the people were unable or unwilling to leave 
the building for hours after its conclusion ; and an eye-witness remarks, 
" The recollection of such days of power and glory is enough to make 
an old man renew his youth." ^ Traveling slowly, as he was able, he 
reached Baltimore in the month of August, and continued in that city, 
preaching usually once on the Lord's day, till July, 1804. In May of 
that year the General Conference was held in Baltimore, but he was 
able to be present only during part of the session. " It closed," he 

* Boehm's " Reminiscences," p. 86. 



124 Methodist Bishops. 

writes, " in great peace and mucli love." On July ITth. lie set out, 
riding slowly, for Greene County, Pennsylvania, where lie found his 
colleague j)rostrate with fever, and stayed in attendance upon him for 
an entire month. The two then started together, but when they had 
proceeded about ninety miles Asbury's weakness compelled him to 
return, while Whatcoat " took the wilderness," and preached, visited 
the Societies, and encouraged the brethren in Tennessee and South 
Carolina. His ride of twelve hundred miles terminated at Charleston, 
where a Conference was arranged to open on the first day of 1805. 
Asbury had contrived to reach the Conference, and afterward the two 
bishops traveled together for many weeks, preaching daily on their 
route, until they reached Chester town, Maryland, where they held a 
Conference commencing on the 1st of May. " We had great search- 
ings of heart, strict discipline, good order, much preaching to large 
congregations, and very comfortable times." 

Still traveling northward they held a conference in June at Ash- 
grove, IsTew York. '' Then Bishop Asbury and I parted ; he went to 
the IS'ew England Conference, and I returned to the "West." His 
journey was continued to Wheeling, where, after mentioning that he 
had crossed the Ohio, his autobiography abruptly terminates, just 
twelve months before he was called to rest from his labors. 

In the absence of this invaluable guide it becomes difficult to 
trace, with precision, the course of Bishop Whatcoat's official journeys. 
That his labors, notwithstanding the physical torture incident to his 
malady, were continued almost without abatement to the end may be 
inferred from Asbury's statement, that during the last year of his life 
he traveled three thousand miles. Wherever he appeared he was re- 
garded with veneration, even in I^ew England. ^Notwithstanding that 
he had been the competitor of Lee, their favorite candidate for the 
episcopal office, he was always received with a heartfelt regard, which 
ripened, on the occasion of his later visits, into reverence. In April, 
1806, after attending the Philadelphia Conference, he undertook a 
journey on horseback of several hundred miles. On his way he was 
seized with a severe attack of gravel, causing intense agony. "We did 
not know," says Asbury, "but he would die on the road." At Dover, 
Delaware, he was obliged to make a halt, which proved to be his last. 
The illness was of several weeks' duration. So unworldly was his spirit, 



EicHARD Whatcoa^t. 125 

and so inadequate was the maintenance then provided for a bishop, 
that he had no means of defraying the expenses of his sickness. But 
He who feeds the fowls of the air and clothes the lilies of the field, 
did not permit His faithful servant to remain destitute of those loving 
attentions which smooth the dying pillow. At the house of Mr. Bas- 
set, who had previously been governor of the State, he was kindly 
entertained until the moment arrived when he could dispense with all 
earthly succors. A few weeks before his decease, in a letter to Dr. 
Coke, he stated that his eyes were very weak and his nerves so much 
shaken that he could seldom write ; but after reporting various partic- 
ulars connected with his work, he concluded by expressing the full- 
ness of his gratitude and hope. " I have filled up seventy years 
among the living, and now bless God that ever I was born, and espe- 
cially that I was born again. My soul is looking out for a happy 
eternity." On the 4th of July he was called home, and his mortal 
remains were deposited in the Wesley Church, in Dover. Four days 
afterward his friend and comjDanion, Bishop Asbury, who had mani- 
fested the most touching grief, wrote as follows in his Journal : " That 
father in Israel, and my faithful friend for forty years ; a man of solid 
parts, a self-denying man of God ! Whoever heard him speak an idle 
word ? When was guile found in his mouth ? He had been thirty-eight 
years in the ministry ; sixteen years in England and twenty-two years 
in America ; twelve years as presiding elder, and six years in the super- 
intendency. A man so uniformly good I have not known in Europe 
or America. He had long been afilicted with gravel and stone, in 
which affliction, nevertheless, he traveled a great deal, three thousand 
miles the last year. He bore in the last three months excessively pain- 
ful illness with the most exemplary patience. At his taking leave of 
the South Carolina Conference I thought his time was short. I 
changed my route to visit him, but only reached within one hundred 
and thirty miles; death was too quick for me."^ In the funeral 
sermon, preached somxCtime afterward, his old companion and survivor 
further remarked : ''I have known him intimately for nearly fifty 
years, and tried him most accurately in respect to the soundness of 
his faith. I have known the holy manner of his life ; his attention to 
duty at all times, in all places, as a Christian and as a minister ; his 

* Asbury's "Journal," vol. iii, p. 230. 



1:26 Methodist Bishops. 

long-suffering and endurance in great affliction of body and of mind, 
having been exercised with severe diseases and great labors. But 
these did not abate his charity — his love of God and man. He bore 
with resignation and patience great temptations, bodily labors, and 
inexpressible pain. In life or death he was placid and calm ; as he 
lived, so he died." 

" We do not claim for him," says Dr: Bangs, " deep erudition nor 
extensive science ; but he was profoundly learned in the sacred Script- 
ures, thoroughly acquainted with Wesleyan theology, and well versed 
in all the varying systems of divinity with which the Christian 
Church has been loaded. For gravity of deportment, meekness of 
spirit, deadness to the world, and deep devotion to God, perhaps he 
was not excelled, if, indeed, equaled, by any of his contemporaries or 
successors. "^"■ 

Three weeks after Bishop Whatcoat's death an article was pub- 
lished in the "Federal Gazette," a daily journal of Baltimore, 
speaking of him as " a man of deep humility and solid piety, and a 
lively, experimental, and practical preacher of the GospeL"f " Sober 
without sadness," says the official record of his death, " and cheerful 
without levity, he was equally removed from the severe austerity of 
the gloomy monk and likeness of the facetious and empty- brained 
witling. His words were weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, 
and when uttered, even in the way of rebuke, admonition, or instruc- 
tion, they were calculated to minister grace to the hearer." 

So lived and died Bichard Whatcoat, a man eminently fitted by 
natural gravity and solidity of character, and by the abounding grace 
of God leading him into the enjoyment of that perfect love which 
casteth out fear, for the duties which he was called upon to fulfill in 
the Church of Christ. Though possessing comparatively little of the 
"knowledge that puffeth up," there was given to him in abundance 
the charity that edifieth ; and while prophecy may fail, and tongues 
may cease, and knowledge may vanish away, this charity that never 
faileth must ever remain the highest gift, the gift most to be desired, 
in the shepherd of souls. 

* Bangs, vol. ii, p. 187. ] Methodist " Magazine," 1807, p. 190, 






4ii!f''*^. 







''uVV^kMi 



rilshop oii>e"MsLhodisi Jir 



William M'Kendree, 



BY KEV. T. O. SUMMERS, D.D. 



WILLIAM M'KENDEEE was bom in King William County, 
Virginia, Jnlj 6, 1Y57. He was the oldest child of John and 
Mary M'Kendree, who were Yirginians by birth. When William was 
about seven years of age his parents removed to James City County, 
near Williamsburgh, the seat of William and Mary College. A few 
years after they settled in Greenville County, on the Meherrin Kiver, 

John M'Keiidree was a planter, and brought up his son in his own 
vocation. Besides William he had seven other children, to wit: 
Lucinda, Dorotha, Frances, John, Thomas, James, and ISTancy ; of 
these, three became somewhat noted in the annals of Methodism. 

Frances became the wife of the Rev. I^athaniel Moore, to whom 
she was married by Bishop Asbury. She died without issue, in holy 
triumph, near Columbia, Tennessee, January 3, 1835. 

James, the seventh child, became the father of a large family. 
His house was the bishop's center. There his father died, and there 
he ended his life. 

]^ancy, the eighth child, survived them all. She was never mar- 
ried. Her father, her sister Frances, and the Bishop, died in her 
arms ; and when she passed away she was buried at the head of the 
Bishop's grave. 

The M'Kendree family removed from Yirginia to Tennessee in 
1810. The venerable patriarch, and his sons James and William, and 
his daughter Nancy, ended their days near Fountain Head, in Sumner 
County, and there they sleep together in their rural sepulcher. They 
were a loving family, the domestic affections being strong in all the 
members. 

When the War of the Revolution broke out William M'Kendree 
was about twenty years of age. He was at that time in Yirginia. 
He responded to the call of his country, and joined a company of 
volunteers. He was an adjutant in the service, and for some time he 



130 Methodist Bishops. 

was in the commissary department. He displayed great energy in 
procuring supplies to sustain the allied armies of Washington and 
Rochambeau. He was at the battle of Yorktown when Cornwallis 
was taken — which virtually closed the war. He bravely and faith- 
fully discharged the duties of a patriot soldier ; but after the struggle 

. w^as over he had not the vanity to fight his battles over again, nor the 
cupidity to seek a pension for his services. He did his duty, and 
thought no more about it. This was characteristic of the man during 
his whole life. 

As might be supposed, his advantages in the way of education 
were very limited. But he improved such as fell in his way; and 
by application, industry, and perseverance, acquired a sufficient amount 

* of knowledge to qualify him to teach school before he entered the 
ministry. He had strong common sense, an indomitable will, and 
a retentive memory, so that he acquired a large store of information, 
and the capacity to turn it to profitable account. I have examined 
many of his papers — they evince the characteristics of an auto di- 
dashalos — one who had not been much indebted to " tutors and 
governors " for his education, but who had made good use of the 
faculties with which he was endowed, and the opportunities of ac- 
quiring knowledge and wisdom with which he was favored. ]^o 
doubt he experienced great embarrassment from his lack of early 
culture ; but then this lack was not altogether a misfortune, as he was 
thus thrown upon his own resources, and a spirit of independence wa,s 
developed which made him the man for the times and for the work 
to which he was called. 

The parents of William M'Kendree belonged to the old colonial 
Church in Virginia, in which, of course, he was baptized and trained. 
His early life was moral. He says that he never but once swore an 
oath, and he abstained from the vices of the age ; but he remained 
for years a stranger to the life and power of godliness. 

When about nineteen years of age the Methodist preachers came 
into his neighborhood, and he was awakened by their ministry. He 
"joined the Society," and remained "in connection" for several years, 
without realizing renewing grace. "I then," says he, "peacefully 
retired from the Society, while my conduct continued to secure their 
friendship." 



William M'Kendree. 131 

He remained in this condition till the year 1Y8Y, when he was 
abont thirty years of age. At that time a great revival took place in 
Brunswick Circuit, under the ministry of that extraordinary man, the 
Kev. John Easter. William M'Kendree became a subject of convert- 
ing grace at that time. He passed through most painful processes of 
repentance, which, however, soon resulted in all joy and peace in 
believing. The description of his conversion, in a letter which he 
wrote to Bishop Asbury some sixteen years after, is exceedingly' 
graphic, and shows how pungent were his convictions of sin ; how 
earnest his struggles for deliverance ; how painful were his tempta- 
tions, and doubts, and fears ; and how glorious was the change which 
took place when he was turned ''from darkness to light, and from 
the power of Satan unto God." 

He was immediately filled with great concern for the unconverted, 
and manifested much zeal for their salvation. Still, he did not 
imagine that he was called to preach, till one day, as he sat at table, 
his father said to him : " William, has not the Lord called you to 
preach the gospel ? " William answered : "I cannot tell ; I do not 
know what a call to preach the gospel implies." The old gentleman 
responded : " I believe he has ; and I charge you not to quench the 
Spirit." He continued undecided till he was laid on a bed of affliction, 
and was visited by Mr. Easter, who prayed with peculiar fervor for 
his recovery, and that he might be thrust into the ministry. Re- 
covering his health, he spoke more freely and frequently in public. 
Shortly after. Bishop Asbury, at a District Conference, held in 
Petersburgh, appointed him to Mecklenburgh Circuit, as the colleague 
of Philip Cox. This was in 1Y88. The appointment was like an 
electric shock ! But being encouraged by Mr. Easter and others, and 
feeling " the burden of the Lord " resting upon him, he obeyed the 
call. He went -to the circuit fully expecting that the experiment 
would prove a failure. But the preachers and people thought other- 
wise ; and the result shows that they were right. 

The next year, 1789, he was appointed to Cumberland Circuit ; 
but after traveling on it a part of the year he was transferred to 
Mecklenburgh, his first circuit. During this year his doubts subsided, 
and he settled down on the conviction that he was really called of 
God to the sacred office. 



132 Methodist Bishops. 

On June 15, 1790, at the Conference held in Petersbnrgh, Bishop 
Asbury ordained him deacon. He spent the ensuing Conference year 
partly on Portsmouth, and partly on Surrey Circuit ; and he was happy 
and successful in his work. 

At the Conference held in Petersburgh, April, 1791, he was ap- 
pointed to Amelia Circuit. Bishops Coke and Asbury were both in 
attendance at that Conference, the former being just about to return 
to England on account of the recent death of Mr. Wesley. 

M'Kendree was ordained elder at a Conference held by Bishop 
Asbury at Lane's Chapel, December 25, 1791, and w^as appointed to 
Greenville Circuit. This embraced his old home, and he was appre- 
hensive that the old proverb would be realized in his case: "JS^o 
prophet is accepted in his owm country." But in this he was agree- 
ably disappointed. He says, "I believe I never went through the 
business of a circuit with more ease." He makes this suggestive 
remark: "Although many were turned out, there w^ere no fixed 
prejudices in consequence of the administration that I know of." He 
appears to have been a rather rigid disciplinarian at that time — as, 
indeed, were most of the early preachers. 

At the '' General Conference," in I^ovember, 1792, he fell in with 
certain preachers who prejudiced him against Bishop Asbury and 
" his creatures," who were charged with dark and ambitious designs, 
popery, etc. They were determined to have a Church of their own 
— a glorious Church ! He was so far influenced by them that he left 
the Conference without taking an appointment. But a few days after 
he providentially met the bishop and presiding elder, and received 
an appointment to ]^orfolk station, went to his work, looked more 
closely into the system, was satisfied with regard to its scriptural 
character and the purity and integrity of the bishop, and went on his 
way rejoicing. His old presiding elder, James O'Kelly, was the 
cause of all this disaffection. He died shortly after, and the secession 
of which he was the originator came to naught. 

The severe ordeal through which M'Kendree passed at this early 
period of his ministry made him more devoted to the system of 
Episcopal Methodism, and prepared him in his mature life to take the 
lead in its healthful development and successful defense. 

At the Conference held in Petersburgh, N'ovember, 1793, he was 



William M'Kendeee. 133 

appointed to Union Circuit, in South Carolina, Philip Bruce being his 
presiding elder. He spent three months, however, in traveling with 
Bishop Asbury — a circumstance which had an important bearing on 
his future life. 

At the next Conference he w^as appointed to Botetourt Circuit, 
Yirginia. 

The next three yeare he presided over a district which extended 
from the Chesapeake Bay over the Blue Eidge and Alleghany 
Mountains, to a vast region of territory iipon the western waters. 

In 1Y98 he was appointed to a district within the bounds of the 
Baltimore Conference ; and in the spring of 1800 he was returned to 
his former district. 

In October, 1800, he accompanied Bishops Asbury and Whatcoat 
to the Western Conference, at Bethel, Kentucky. 

He then took charge of a district which embraced the present States 
of Ohio and Kentucky, and large tracts in Western Yirginia, Illinois, 
Tennessee, and Mississippi. It was fifteen hundred miles in compass. 

He was the very man for this work. The hand of Providence 
was manifestly seen in this appointment. He spent eight years in 
this frontier pioneer work, and he always considered them as the 
most laborious and successful years of his life. There were perils 
in the wilderness, exposure, fatigue, privation ; but there was a fas- 
cinating romance in this pioneering work which relieved it of much 
of its repulsiveness ; and the conviction that he was laying deep and 
broad the foundations of the Church in those vast solitudes, with the 
blessing of Heaven, sustained him amid all his sacrifices and toils. 
His own graphic account of his work at that period will be read with 
interest. He says : — 

" While on the way through these frontier settlements, if we came 
to a creek or river we had the privilege of swimming it ; and when 
safely landed on the other bank it was a consolation to reflect we had 
left that obstruction behind, and that the way to the next lay open and 
plain before us. If night overtook us before we could reach a house, 
it was our privilege to gather wood where we could find it, make 
a fire, eat our morsel, and supplicate a throne of grace with as 
free access as in a palace or a church. Being weary, we rested 
sweetly and securely under the divine protection ; and when we 



134 Methodist Bishops. 

arrived at our destination, if the accommodations were of the hum- 
blest kind we had the inexjDressible satisfaction of being received with 
a heartj welcome, and accommodated with the best the family conld 
afford ; and though very inferior in the estimation of the delicate, and 
those accustomed to sumptuous fare, yet all the real wants of nature 
were supplied. We ate heartily, slept sweetly, and rejoiced with the 
pious and affectionate jDeople, who received and treated the ministers 
of the gospel as angels of God ; and, above all, when the time arrived 
for us to deliver our message the people flocked together, and seemed 
to want to hear what Grod the Lord would say. The prayers of the 
pious ascended the hill of the Lord ; divine power attended the preach- 
ing of the word ; sinners were convicted, many were converted to 
God, and the Church was enlarged and built up in the faith once 
delivered to the saints. My appointment required much riding. I 
preached often, and sustained a great charge ; and yet I esteem these 
among the happiest days of my life. Strange as it may seem, there, 
in the midst of exposure and many privations, my impaired constitu- 
tion was restored, and my general health greatly improved. I en- 
joyed peace and consolation through faith, and was enabled to walk 
with God." 

It is astonishing on what small pittances the preachers subsisted in 
those days. During M'Kendree's first year's service as presiding elder 
in the West he received only $20 ; the second year, $43 67 ; and so 
of other years. This embraced all his perquisites, which, according to 
the rule at that time, had to be reported ! But we hear of no com- 
plaint of " hard tim.es ! " 

It was fortunate for the cause of Methodism and a pure Chris- 
tianity that M'Kendree labored those eight years in that region. " The 
great revival," as it was called, took place in Kentucky and Tennessee 
at that time. The Methodists labored in union with a part of the 
Presbyterian Church. But it was not long before difficulties arose. 
The old Presbyterians would not sanction the employment of men as 
ministers who had not received a liberal education ; and they required 
a strict adherence to the Confession of Faith. But many who labored 
in this revival would not be so restricted. They were determined to 
employ men whom they considered called to the ministry, whether 
liberally educated or not ; and they repudiated the dogma of absolute 



William M'Kendree. 135 

and unconditional election and reprobation, and cognate points, as 
inconsistent with tlie offer of salvation to all men. 

This led to the organization of a new sect called '• Cumberland 
Presbyterians," fi^om the Cumberland country, in which they origi- 
nated. Then there was an invasion by the Shakers, who led off some of 
tlie Presbyterian ministers into their insane delusion. . Then " Stone- 
ites," " IN'ew Lights," and other erratic sects were developed. Jerking, 
jumping, barking, and the like, disgraced the revival scenes, and 
brought them into disrepute. 

Fanaticism, the work of man and of the devil, got mixed up with 
the work of God, and the cause was greatly imperiled. It required a 
cool brain and a soiind judgment, a steady hand and constant vigilance, 
to direct the movement in such circumstances. M'Kendree was the 
man for the occasion. He brought the Methodists through without 
any entangling alliance, and with comparatively little defection. There 
were times when, for the sake of catholicity and compromise, the 
temptation was strong to keep particular doctrines in abeyance, and to 
forego certain' rules of the Discipline. But M'Kendree was equal to 
the trial. He was friendly to all who sincerely labored to promote 
the work of God ; but he knew the mission of Methodism too well to 
give up any part of its glorious system. 

It is proper to say that his colaborers were men of like spirit with 
himself. Since the apostolic age a nobler corjps of evangelists has not, 
perhaps, been seen than that composed of such men as Burke, Black- 
man, Walker, Sale, Wilkinson, Henry Smith, Gibson, Jacob Young, 
Lewis Garrett, James Gwyn, I^age, Watson, and others, with M'Ken- 
dree as their trusty and honored leader. 

M'Kendree speaks of a great camp-meeting which they held west 
of the Mississippi, in what is now the State of Missouri — the first ol 
the sort ever held in that region. On the last day of the meeting one 
hundred joined the Church. 

As neither Asbury nor Whatcoat was able to attend the Western 
Conference, and Coke was absent in Euro]3e, M'Kendree presided at 
the session of 1804. He did this so well that when a new bishop was 
needed — as Whatcoat died in 1806 — attention was directed to M'Ken- 
dree as the proper man. He continued on the Cumberland District 
till the General Conference, which was held in Baltimore, May, 1808. 



136 Methodist Bishops. 

On the Sunday before the Conference opened its session irKen- 
dree was appointed to preach in Light-street Church. He entered 
the pulpit in coarse attire, such as he wore in the backwoods. Dr. 
Bangs says he looked at him with distrust, saying to himseK, " I won- 
der what awkward backwoodsman they have put in the pulpit this 
morning, to disgrace us wdth his mawkish and uncouth phraseology ? " 
He faltered in his speech, clipped some of his words at the end, hesi- 
tated and stumbled, till he got fairly into his subject, then he bore down all 
before him. The congregation was overwhelmed ; there were sudden 
shrieks of distress, and then shouts of joy ; many were bathed in tears ; 
some were prostrated in their pews ; a large athletic preacher fell upon 
his seat as if pierced by a bullet. Dr. Bangs says.: " I felt my heart 
melting under emotions which I could not resist. "When the preacher 
descended from the pulpit all were filled with admiration of his 
talents, and were ready to ^ magnify the grace of God in him,' as a 
chosen messenger of good tidings to the lost, saying in their hearts, 
' This is the man whom God delights to honor.' " Bishop Asbury, 
who was present, said, " That sermon will make him a bishop." 

M'Kendree was elected bishop May 12th, and consecrated by 
Bishop Asbury May 18, 1808. He was the first native American that 
ever filled that ofiice in the Methodist Episcopal Church. His creden- 
tials are still preserved among his papers. They were written by 
Bishop Asbury's o^m hand, and as they are somewhat of a curiosity, 
they are here reproduced verhatinh et literatim : — 

" Know all men by these presents, that I, Francis Asburj^, originally of Great 
Britain, in great Barr, Staffordshire, the Parish of Handsworth, for some years a 
member of the Methodist Society, and a local preacher; afterwards a member of 
the British Conference. In the year 1771 I came a Missionary to the British 
Provinces in America; afterwards General Assistant, and I had the oversight of 
the Methodist Society's. On the 27th day of December, 1784, at a General Con- 
ference in Baltimore, after being ordained Deacon and Elder, I was elected to 
the office of Superintendent or Bishop, by the unanimous voice of the General 
Ocmference held in Baltimcn-e, December 24, 1784. The following persons assisted 
in my ordination, viz., Thomas Coke, Doctor of Civil Law of Jesus College in the 
University of Oxford, Presbyter of the Church of England, Superintendent of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in America, by the ordination and appointment of 
Mr. John Wesley, and other clergymen of the Church of England; also assisted 
in tlie ordination, William Otterbine, Minister of the German Presbyterian 



William M'Kendree. 137 

Church, and Richard Whatcoat with Thomas Vasey, regularly ordained Elders by 
John Wesley: these four solemnly set me apart for a Superintendent of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church in the United States of America. And now be it known 
to all whom it may concern, that WiLiiiAiM McKendree was ordained Deacon in 
the year 1790, and I did set him apart to the office of an Elder by my hands, in 
December of the year 1791. I have, this eighteenth day of May, one thousand 
eight hundred and eight, set apart William McKendree,* by the laying on of 
hands and prayer, assisted by Freeborn Garrettsou, Philip Bruce, Jesse Lee, and 
Thomas Ware, all of them Elders in the Church ; to the office and rank of a Super- 
intendent or Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, (after he had been elected 
by a majority — i. e., 95 out of 128 members of General Conference,) as a man 
whom we judge well qualified for the office of a Superintendent, and one of the 
Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and fit to preside over and Feed the 
Flock of Christ, so long as his spirit, practice, and doctrine is such as becometh 
the Gospel of Christ, and he shall submit to the Discipline and order of the said 
Methodist Episcopal Church in America. 

"And I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this eighteenth day of May, in 
the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eight. 

' ' Francis Asbury, [Seal.] 
"Jesse Lee, 
[Seal.] " Freeborn Garrettson, 

' ' Thomas Ware, 

"Philip Bruce. 

" Done in Light-Street Church, Baltimore, State of Maryland." 

"*Born in King William County, State of Virginia, July 6, 1757." 

A clumsy, anacoluthic dociiment, it must be confessed ! But its 
simplicity and subjective detail invest it with great historic interest. 
M'Kendree's episcopal credentials are more prized by us 'in this 
homely English than they would have been in sonorous Latin. 

M'Kendree shrank from the responsibility of the episcopal office. 
" Deeply conscious," said he, " that I did not possess qualifications 
adequate to the important station, yet confident of support from my 
brethren, and relying on divine aid, I reluctantly and tremblingly 
submitted." 

Bishop Asbury w^as rejoiced at his appointment. " The burden," 
said he, " is now borne by tvv^o pairs of shoulders instead of one — the 
care is cast upon two hearts and heads." 

He said two, because Bishop Coke had virtually retired from the 
episcopal work in America, as he was inaugurating Methodist mis- 



138 Methodist Bishops. 

sions in otlier parts of the world. But lie was deeply concerned for 
the welfare of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, and 
wrote to Bishop M'Kendree from AYales, October 5, 1808 : 

' ' To Bishop M'Kendree : — I write to you, my very dear brother and friend, not 
to congratulate you on your election to the office of a bishop, (for I believe you 
regard not office nor honor any further than you may serve God thereby,) but to 
express my regard for you, and the pleasure I feel (notwithstanding what I have 
written above) at your being united to my old and venerable Brother Asbury, in 
tlie great work in which he is engaged, I am persuaded God has chosen you to 
help my dear brother, and that you will go with him in perfect union in 
blessing the American continent under divine grace. 

"You are mild, you are moderately and properly reserved, and do not aim 
at an overbearing exercise of power. I have not had a large acquaintance with 
yon, but your person and your voice are fresh to me, as if you were now with 
me in the same room, and I greatly mistake if I do not taste your spirit. Go 
on. brother, w^alking with God and united to him. Your field of action is 
great. You have, perhaps, ten thousand pulpits open to you. But the grand 
point, Avhich must be engraven continually on your forehead, as it were, and 
on your heart, is the harmony and union of the Methodist Connection in America. 
God bless you! 3Iy dearest wife joins me in love to you. Pray for us. 

"I am, very dear brother and friend, yours aifectionately and faithfully, 

"T. Coke." 
"P. S. — Please write to me.'' 

What a beautiful spirit of devoted friendship and fervent pietj 
pervades that letter ! "What a debt the world owes that self-sacrificing 
and apostolic man I 

M'Kendree's first episcopal tour of fifteen hundred miles on 
horseback took him through large portions of Yirginia, Tennessee, 
Illinois, and Missouri. He astonished and delighted the people on 
the frontier with the simplicity of his manners, the plainness of his 
attire, his affability in social life, and his rare pulpit talents. 

The first Conference that he held was the "Western, at Liberty 
Hill, Tennessee, October 1, 1808, and admirably did he conduct its 
business, vindicating the wisdom of his appointment to the episcopal 
office. 

He continued in the performance of his arduous duties, riding 
through the connection every year, attending camp-meetings and 
other great occasions, preaching and presiding in Conferences, with 
unquenchable zeal, universal accej^tance, and wonderful success. 



William M'Kendree. 139 

M'lvendree was the first bishop who conducted the business of an 
Annual Conference according to parliamentary rules. Bishop Asburj 
cared but little about rules of order ; but M'Kendree knew their 
importance. Asburj was a patriarch — a man of sound judgment and 
large experience ; so that the preachers would defer to his method of 
proceeding in the Conferences, whatever it might have been ; but 
M'Kendree sustained a different relation to those over whom he was 
called to preside. Hence he wisely induced the Conferences to 
adopt rules of order ; and he made himself master of them, and 
rigidly but mildly enforced them. Competent judges said, that as a 
moderator he was unsurpassed in Church or State. He was very 
rarely, if ever, known to make an episcopal decision from which a 
majority dissented. He was prompt, impartial, courteous, firm — a 
model president. 

Bishop Paine, who was much w^ith him — and who trod in his 
footsteps, being a capital presiding officer himself — says that he is 
decidedly of the opinion that he has never seen any man who so 
impressed and controlled a body of men as Bishop M'Kendree did 
in his palmy days. There were always quietness, order, and a respect- 
ful manner among all the members of Conference when he presided. 

His adherence to recognized rules of order was of vast importance 
in conducting the business of the General Conference. When that 
body met in 'New York, in 1812, Bishop M'Kendree submitted to it 
an address in writing, in which he called attention to this subject, and 
introduced the custom, which has been perpetuated, of laying out the 
business of the session and transacting it in regular order. In 
allusion to this the late venerable Henry Smith, in a letter to Bishop 
Paine, says : — 

" Previous to the first delegated General Conference, May 1, 1812, 
Bishop M'Kendree drew up a plan of business to be brought before 
the General Conference. His address was read in the Conference ; but 
as it was a new thing, the aged bishop (Asbury) rose to his feet im- 
mediately after the paper was read, and addressed the junior bishop 
to the following effect : ' I have something to say to you before the 
Conference.' The junior also rose to his feet, and they stood face to 
face. Bishop Asbury went on to say, ' This is a new thing. I never 
did business in this way, and why is this new thing introduced?' 



140 Methodist Bishops. 

The junior bisliop proinptlj replied, ' Yon are onr father^ we are 
your sons ; you never had need of it. I am only a 'brother^ and I have 
need of it.' Bisliop Asbury said no more, but sat down with a smile 
on liis face. The scene is now before me. I believe the bishops have 
pursued the plan ever since." 

Indeed, Bishop Asbury was so impressed with the superior man- 
. ner in which M'Kendree conducted Conference business that he 
seldom afterward presided, leaving the chair to his colleague. 

In the summer of 1814 Bishop M'Kendree was much injured by 
a fall from a horse, which laid him aside for awhile from his work. 

In the sjDring of 1816 he was laid up with rheumatism at the 
house of D. Wilkins, in Baltimore. To add to his afflictions, on 
March 31, 1816, his venerable colleague, Bishop Asbury, died, leaving 
him the sole surviving bishop of the Church. 

When the second delegated General Conference met in Baltimore, 
May, 1816, he delivered an address to the Conference on the general 
state of the work, and the necessity of strengthening the ej)iscopacy. 

Agreeably to his suggestion the Conference gave liim two col- 
leagues. Bishops George and Roberts. 

In 1818, while on his way to the Mississippi Conference, he ex- 
perienced Avhat he called '' a very uncommon shock." It affected his 
head, and, indeed, his whole system, so that for a time he could not move. 

The Conference was held at a private house near a camp-meeting. 
It consisted of only ten members. On the second day of the session 
they met in his room — he being in bed. On Sunday he was taken to 
the camp-ground, and lay in a bed during the sermon ; after which, 
being held up by two preachers, he performed the ordination service. 

Being unable to travel on horseback, Judge M'Gehee — one of 
God's noblemen, who still resides at Woodville, Mississippi — gave 
him a light Jersey wagon, in which he traveled to Tennessee, camping 
out eight nights, and reaching his brother's house, at Fountain Head,, 
in improved health. 

"When the General Conference met in Baltimore, May, 1820, 
Bishop M'Kendree submitted an address to the Conference, in which 
he indicated the wants of the connection, especially calling attention 
to the importance of " strengthening the episcopacy," in view of his 
increasing infirmities. 



William M'Kendree. 141 

The Conference approved of liis administration and that of his 
colleagnes, reqnested him to take such work as he miglit feel able to 
accomplish, and proceeded to elect another bishop. Their choice fell 
upon the very man for the office — Joshua Soule. 

But after they had elected him they passed certain resolutions 
declaring that in future presiding elders should be nominated by the 
bishops, and elected by the Annual Conference; and that they 
should constitute a council with the bishop for the appointment of 
the preachers. If these measures had been adopted by tlie delegated 
General Conference they would have been a serious infringement 
of the constitution — they would have overthrown the government 
of the Church. Bishop George, who was presiding at the time, 
seems to have had no fixed principles on the subject ; and Bishop 
Roberts, though admitting the unconstitutionality of the measures, 
was disposed, with Bishop George, because a majority favored the 
innovations, to submit to them. 

^ot so Bishop M'Kendree, who, as soon as he was informed of the 
proposed change, (being sick at the time,) declared that he would 
not submit to it. Joshua Soule, who had framed the Restrictive 
Rules which were thus to be impinged upon, declared that he would 
not receive consecration if these measures were not rescinded. 

By the firmness of these two men the government of the Church 
was saved, and transmitted intact to our times. Bishop M'Kendree 
should be held in everlasting remembrance for the determined re- 
sistance which he made to these unconstitutional measures. 

After the session of the General Conference he addressed an 
elaborate paper to the Annual Conferences, setting forth his objec- 
tions to the revolutionary scheme. This document evinces great 
wisdom, and a perfect acquaintance with Methodist economy and 
the philosophy of its peculiar polity. It is preserved in Bishoj) 
Paine's " Life of Bishop M'Kendree." 

The resolutions were suspended, and never more saw the light. At 
the next General Conference (1824) Joshua Soule and Elijah Hedding 
were elecrted and consecrated Bishops on the old constitutional basis. 

During the next quadrennium Bishop M'Kendree labored in- 
cessantly, as far as his infirmities would allow. He took a special 
interest in the organization of missions to the Indians and negroes, 



142 Methodist Bishops. 

for whose salvation lie was deeply concerned. In November, 1823, 
he attended a session of the Tennessee Conference at Hnntsville, 
Alabama; but while presiding he had an attack of vertigo, which 
admonished him that his work was drawing within restricted limits. 

Early in March, however, in company with Thomas L. Douglass 
and Eobert Paine, he started in his baronche to Baltimore, to attend 
the session of the General Conference. The jonrney was accom- 
plished with great difficulty, the bishop being nearly exhausted on 
the route. In passing through Virginia he would frequently say to 
Mr. Paine, *' Robert, I must stop awhile here. I knew the old folks, 
and must look after the children." What an affecting manifestation 
of apostolic devotion and zeal ! 

Bishop M'Kendree was very desirous that the bishops should be 
invested with the power of vetoing any action of the General Con- 
ference which, in their judgment, impinged upon the constitution. 
The General Conference of 1824 adopted a resolution favoring this 
'^constitutional test," as it was called, much to the joy of Bishop 
M'Kendree. In his address to the Conference at its close — reported 
by John Summerfield and Robert Paine — he said : " I was pleased 
with an adjustment which is calculated to heal the past by the peace- 
measure 23roposed, and to guard against a recurrence by the constitu- 
tional test." » 

After that General Conference he made an episcopal visitation to 
the north-west, including the national council of the Wyandottes, 
with whom he had a most interesting interview. He remained some 
time among the Indians, visiting them from house to house, and com- 
municating with them through an interpreter. He ever after spoke 
with delight of that visit. 

He then returned to his friends in Tennessee, with whom he spent 
the winter, and witnessed the triumphant death of his sister Frances. 

He wrote to his colleagues from l^ashville, December 12, 1824, 
that he could no longer perform active episcopal service. He urged 
the establishment of a mission at Liberia, the better instruction of the 
Indians, and a greater devotion to pastoral work. 

But he did not desist from traveling ; he visited all parts of the 
connection, and preached and presided at Conferences, till the next ses- 
sion of the General Conference, which was in 1828, at Pittsburgh. 



William M'Kendree. 143 

Having received an affecting letter from the Wyandottes, thanking 
him for his fatherly care, and expressing a strong desire tliat he should 
visit them again, he did so in June, 1827, much to their gratification 
and his own. 

After the General Conference of 1828 he returned to Tennessee, 
attended the Kentuck}^ Conference and other important meetings; 
visited the Cherokee Indians in their national council, and went to 
Athens, in Georgia, and ordained Stephen Olin, who w^as then 
professor in Franklin College ; itinerated largely through Georgia 
and South Carolina ; presided at the South Carolina Conference, in 
Charleston ; proceeded through North Carolina and Yii-ginia, attending 
the Virginia Conference at Lynchbnrgh ; thence to Baltimore, attend- 
ing the Conference; thence through Pennsylvania and 'New Jersey, 
attending the Fhiladelp>hia Conference; thence to Urbana, where he 
attended the Ohio Conference; thence to Lexington, attending the 
Kentucky Conference ; thence to ^Nashville, where he spent the winter 
of 1829-30. 

Feeble as he was he preached at camp-meetings, sometimes to six 
thousand people, so as to be distinctly heard by all. 

In the early part of 1830, accompanied by his attached friend Alex- 
ander L. P. Green, he visited Mississipj^i and Louisiana, purjDOsing to 
extend his tour through the West, South, and East ; but he was imable 
to do so. 

He, how^ever, attended the Kentucky Conference, in Russellville, 
and then crossed the mountains for the sixtieth time, to attend the 
Holston Conference at Ebenezer, Greene County, Tennessee, ISTovem- 
ber 4. But he had to be carried in the arms of his attendants, and could 
visit the Conference but once, and then but for a few minutes. He 
still purjDOsed to continue his tour, but his friends remonstrated with 
him, and he yielded, saying with tears, " I approve your judgment, 
and submit." 

After spending the winter with his friends in Tennessee, he 
attended the General Conference, in Philadelphia, May, 1832 ; but was 
not able to be present at many of its sessions. He, however, preached 
an impressive, sermon, and presided at the ordination of Bishops An- 
drew and Emory. 

The Conference continued his superannuated relation, allowing him 



144 Methodist Bishops. 

two linndred and fifty dollars a year for extra traveling expenses, 
besides one Imndred dollars for liis traveling companion. 

The day before tbe Conference adjourned, leaning on his staff, his 
eyes suffused with tears, and his voice trembling with emotion, the 
whole assembly rising to their feet, he said : — 

''Let all things be done without strife or vainglory, and try to 
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace. My brethren and 
children, love one another." Then, spreading forth his hands and 
raising his eyes to heaven, he pronounced in faltering accents the 
apostolic benediction. He then left the assembly to return no more. 

After spending a few weeks in Baltimore, he took final leave of 
his friends east of the mountains and returned to Tennessee. He 
lay in a bed in his carriage a great part of the way, being unable to 
sit up. 

But he so far rallied as to be able to travel extensively in 1833. 
He attended the session of the Tennessee Conference at Pulaski, 
though he was not able to preside, being confined to his bed most of 
the time. 

On the first Sunday in December he preached in ]!^ashville, and 
administered the Lord's Supper. He preached there also on Christ- 
mas-day. He held a watch-meeting there on the last night of the 
year, and the next day left for Mississippi and Louisiana, preaching at 
various points. He then returned to Tennessee and attended the 
session of the Conference at Lebanon, November 5, 1834 — the last he 
ever attended. The Tennessee Conference requested him to write 
an autobiography, and he promised to do what he could, which he 
feared would be "very little^ and so it proved. After the session he re- 
turned to Nashville, and was prevailed upon to preach, November 23, 
1834, in the church which bears his name. The house was filled to 
overflowing. Be v. Dr. Green, who was present, says : — 

" I can, in my imagination, see him this moment, as he last stood 
on the walls of Zion with his sickle in his hand ; the gray hairs thinly 
covering his forehead, his pale and withered face, his benignant coun- 
tenance, his speaking eye ; while a deep undercurrent of thought, 
scarcely veiled by the external lineaments, took form in words, and 
fell from his trembling lips, as, ])y the eye of faith, he transcended the 
boundaries of time and entered upon the eternal world. But he is 



"William M'Kendree. 145 

drawing to the close of liis sermon. 'Now, for the last time, he bends 
himself and reaches his sickle forth to reap the fields ripe for the har- 
vest. How balmy the name of Christ as he breathes it forth, standing, 
as it w^ere, midway between heaven and earth, and pointing to the 
home of the faithful in the sky. I look up again ; the sickle sways in 
his hand, his strength is measured out, and he closes up his ministerial 
labors on earth with the words, ' I add no more,' while imagination 
hears the response from the invisible glory, ' It is enough.' " 

About December 22d, he left Nashville for his brother's residence 
in Sumner County, under a presentiment, as is supposed, that his end 
was near, and in accordance with a long-cherished wish to die at hmne, 
and be buried there. But before he started on his last trip, a little 
portion of the skin by the side of the nail on the forefinger of his right 
hand had become loosened ; in pulling it off, it reached the quick, and 
made it sore. Presently it inflamed, and became sw^ollen and very 
painful. He thought that the ink from his pen had got into it and 
poisoned it. The inflammation and the pain increased until his rest 
and sleep were much interrupted, yet he was enabled to reach his 
brother's before Christmas. The ''incorrigible tumor" on his finger, 
however, continued to give him excrutiating pain, in spite of all 
medical aid, until his finger wasted away, v/hile the agony seemed to 
involve, by sympathy, his back and head. 

He continued to decline till March 5, 1835, when he closed his long 
life of service and suffering '' with a triumphant end." He frequently 
repeated, during his sickness, "All is well ! " 

Speaking of his interment, he said : " I wish to be buried in the 
ancient Methodist style, like an old Christian minister." He was ac- 
cordingly shrouded in black silk, put in a plain walnut coffin, and laid 
on the left side of his father, about forty yards from the old family 
mansion, where he died. 

While attending a District Conference a few years since, at Foun- 
tain Head, I visited the sacred, sequestered spot. The inclosure of 
the tomb had been broken down by sacrilegious soldiers during the 
war, and the grave-stone had been removed from its place, but it was 
still on tlie ground. It bears an inscription written by an unknown 
hand, and unworthy of the subject. It is as follows, verbatim et liter- 
atim et jpunctuatiin : — 



146 Methodist Bishops. 

SACRED 
TO THE MEMORY OF THE KEY. WILLIAM McKENDEEE, 
Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church In the 
United States of America 

Born King William County Virginia July 6th 1*757 
Died at his Brothers Dr James McKendrees 
In Sumner County Ten. March 5th 1835 
He was elected and ordained Bishop 
In the city of Baltimore, May 1808 
He labored in the ministry of the Gospel 47 years 
With uncommon zeal ability and usefulness, 
And for near 27 years discharged the duties 
Of the episcopal office with such wisdom 
Rectitude fidelity as to secure the 
Confidence respect and esteem of the 
Ministers and people of his official 
Oversight in travels and labors for 
The advancement of the Redeemers 
Kingdom and the salvation of the 
Souls of men. He occupied an elevated 
Position among the most eminent ministers 
Of Christ and has furnished an illustrious 
Example for Christian pastors and Bishops 
He finished his course in peace and triumph 
Proclaiming in his last moments 
'All is well.' 

Some unskilled friend, it would seem, drew np this uncontli epi- 
tapli, and trusted the inscription to an ignorant stone-cutter ! 

The Tennessee Conference wished to remove the sacred remains to 
Kashville, and lay them beside those of his colleague, Bishop Soule, 
and to place a decent, durable monument over them ; but the relatives 
wish them to remain undisturbed till the resurrection morn, dulj in- 
closed and protected. 

From the foregoing facts in the life of Bishop M'Kendree it will 
be seen that he was no ordinary man. He possessed a good mind, 
well stored by reading and observation, a fine logical faculty, 'Hhe 
power of convincing sj)eech," uncommon administrative abilities, flam- 
ing zeal, self-sacrificing devotion, and large attainments in the divine 
life. 

H\^ personnel corresponded with the inner man. He was nearly 
six feet in height, and at different periods of his life weighed from one 
hundred and forty to one hundred and eighty pounds. He was well 
proportioned, possessed great physical strength and personal comeli- 
ness. He had fair skin, large dark-blue eyes — to some seeming hazel, 



William M'Kendree. 147 

to others* black — aud dark hair. He was generally close shaved. 
When in full dress he appeared in a long-waisted, single-breasted 
coat of black cloth, waistcoat and breeches, with knee-buckles, and 
long, black stockings, well-polished shoes with silver buckles, a white 
linen stock, and broad-brimmed hat. In the latter part of his life he 
sometimes wore pantaloons ; but he was always seen in a dignified cos- 
tume. He was truly venerable in his appearance. 

He was simple in his tastes. After he was troubled with dyspep- 
sia he was very particular in his diet. He ate plain corn bread, or cold 
wheat bread, with verj^ little if any butter, seldom eating meat, except 
a small relish of broiled bacon — unlike his friend, Bishop Soule, who 
would not eat swine's flesh. He sometimes took a cup of tea, but 
usually drank milk in water. 

He was gentle, and kind, and condescending. The servants held 
him in great reverence, and children delighted in his society. When 
I was editor of the " Sunday-school Yisitor," a communication ad- 
dressed to children, was sent to that paper, by the late Mrs. Mabry, of 
Petersburgh, Virginia, daughter of Mrs. Davis, in whose house M'Ken- 
dree was ordained deacon, and where he often stayed. Among other 
interesting things which she says of Bishop M'Kendree, she observes : — 

*It would seem that Bishop M'Kendree's eyes were as changeable in color as a chame- 
leon. In 1861, when on a visit to Bishop Soule, he took me into his parlor, and pointed to 
a portrait of himself, executed in London, and to portraits of Bishops Asbury and M'Ken- 
dree, taken, I believe, by Paradise, saying, in his rotund manner of speaking : " I give you 
these pictures for the Southern University, at Greensborough, Ala. ; and if at any time that 
University should go down, then they are to be given to some other Methodist institution in 
the Confederate States of America." He considered these two pictures fine likenesses of his 
" venerable friends." I have just carefully examined them. The eyes of Bishop Asbury 
are blue ; those of Bishop M'Kendree seem to be hazel. The likeness was taken when he was 
in his prime. Dr. and Mrs. M'Ferrin, who knew the bishop, say that was the color — "hazel 
or brown." Bishop Paine says they were "dark," Mrs. Mabry says they were " black." 
Rev. Richard Abbey says, that the last sermon Bishop M'Kendree preached in Nashville was 
in his parlor ; he was present, and well remembers the appearance of the bishop ; he says his 
eyes were " black," Rev. Dr. A. L. P. Green, the bishop's intimate friend and traveling com- 
panion, and who is remarkable for his powers of observation and description, assures me again, 
as he has uniformly done, that the bishop's eyes Avere " blue," A short time before the bishop's 
death, John Grimes, a celebrated painter in Nashville, executed the bishop's portrait. I first 
saw that picture in 1842, suspended in "the bishops' room," in Harry Hill's house, Nashville. 
It is now made over to " the bishops' room " in the Publishing House. I examined it the 
other day in company with Mr, Washington Cooper, the eminent portrait painter. We both 
determined that the eyes were "dark blue." Blue eyes, we are told, owe their shade to the 
brown pigment which lines the other side of the iris ; this brown or hazel hue seems to have been 
more observable in Bishop M'Kendree's younger days, and the blue tinge was less apparent. 



148 Methodist Bishops. 

"He was remarkably fond of children. He liked very much to 
liave Lis hair combed, and I would stand perhaps an hour at a time, 
in my little chair, combing his beautiful black hair, which curled 
naturally, and twining it around my tiny fingers. It was all cut short, 
exce23t behind, and there it was just long enough to curl. He would 
almost fall asleep while I was amusing myseK behind him. When I 
came to arrange it in front he would take me on his knee ; and 
when I was done, a very sweet kiss would be my reward, and many 
thanks also. I Avould then take my little chair and sit close by him, 
and count the buttons at his knees — there were five at each knee ; and 
he wore buckles on his shoes, too. I shall never forget his appearance, 
for, in my opinion, he was perfectly beautiful. His eyes were bright 
and black, and tlie expression of his countenance was mild and 
benignant. He had a holy, hapj)y look." 

He was cautious and happy in forming his friendships ; and his 
fidelity to his friends was very strong and affecting. He extended 
the sentiment to his "poor relatives" — the horses on which he de- 
pended for his transportation. Hence, he made provision in his will 
for his old horse " Gray " — which was nearly as well known as his 
master. He bequeathed to this faithful animal, on which he had 
repeatedly traversed the United States, sufiicient to furnish him with 
plenty of food, a good stable, blue-grass pasture, and an honorable 
burial — which he duly inherited. The remains of horse and rider 
molder alike in the grave, and one can scarcely suppress the senti- 
ment attributed by Pope to the Indian in regard to his dog — applying 
it to the good bishop and his noble steed — that 

" Admitted to that equal sky. 

His faithful horse shall bear him company ! " 

Xo — not his "faithful horse," but thousands of faithful followers 
of the Lamb, who, through his instrumentality — directly or indirectly 
— have been, and shall continue to be, brought into the kingdom of 
grace on earth, " shall bear him comj^any " in the kingdom of glory on 
high. 




REV. ENOCH GEORGE. 



Enoch George. 



BY REV. DAVID SHERM^VN, D.D. 



11^ retracing the course of history one is often reminded of the fact 
that some names, which were conspicuous in their day, fade with 
the lapse of time, while others attain to more than their original 
luster. It is natural to suppose that the later estimate, made on 
careful review and often with the aid of fresh data, is the more correct 
and just ; but that this is not invariably, or even generally, the case, 
may be clearly seen by a careful re-examination of almost any chapter 
of remote history. Names start into importance which had been 
nearly forgotten, and others, which remain living realities, require to 
be reduced in their ^proportions. Time bears upon its current not 
always the more solid or valuable qualities, but those most trans- 
missible. The glow and fame of the orator may be dissipated in the 
passage across centuries, wdiile the great qualities of the author who 
lives in his works, or of the founder or legislator who continues to 
speak in his laws or institutions, remain undiminished by lapse of years. 
Our denominational history furnishes instances. The names of 
Wesley, Coke, Asbury, remain familiar to the current generation, 
while those of Whatcoat, George, and even that of Lee, are becoming 
obscured. They are seen as shadow^s along the lines of history — as 
names — and will soon be only the shades of names, faintly traced on 
her pages. And yet in their day they, as well as their more fortunate 
compeers, were potentialities ; often most vividly and forcibly im- 
pressing the current generation, but not in a way to last through 
coming years. The former were preachers adapted to ■ move the 
masses about them by their words and personal magnetism ; the latter 
were organizers and lawgivers, who perjDetuate the memory of their 
virtues in their deeds and the institutions they bequeathed to the 
future. If the one class deserves remembrance for wise counsels and 
broad plans, the other has an equal claim for furnishing the zeal and 
enthusiasm by which those plans became vital, as without these the 



150 MiiTHODisT Bishops. 

best 23lans and ths most complete organizations Ti'oiild be jniceless 
theories and lifeless associations. 

In the band of men in the last century who contributed to enkindle 
the piety and to intensify the devotion of the Church, and thereby to 
set the continent aflame, Enoch George holds a conspicuous and 
honored place. He was bom in Yirginia, a State memorable as the 
mother of bishops as well as of presidents, and a part of that great 
middle section where Methodism early took root, and whence pro- 
ceeded many of her great apostles and evangelists on their mission of 
preaching and spreading " Scripture hohness '' over other sections of 
the land. Here was the home of Ware, Losee, and Garrettson, who 
bore the banner toward the north star ; of Burke, Wade, Poythress, 
Willis, and M'Kendree, who carried the torch to the South and into 
the interminable wilderness of the West ; and of Lee, Pickering, Brush, 
Smith, and Eoberts, who roused by the blast of their trumpets the 
waning piety of Xew England. 

. Lancaster County, on the eastern sloj^e of the Blue Ttidge. the 
birthplace of Mr. George, possessed a thin, light soil, and was long 
cursed with slave labor, vrhich tended to reduce the people to poverty. 
The family of George belonged to the planter class, and thus occupied 
an honorable position in the community ; but, from the causes named, 
became reduced in their material resources, and found it necessary to 
struggle to maintain their position among the " first families.'* Of 
his father, the bishop said, " he labored much for that which profited 
little." To us who look back upon '' an institution " that has perished 
in the fierce storm of war, it seems strange that it should have been 
cherished by a people who so well knew that the foot of the slave 
scorches the soil it treads upon, and brings the curse of barrenness 
upon all the land. But man often most nourishes the evil which 
produces only bitter fruit. The planter, in view of the j)overty and 
disoTace that must inevitablv attend his course of hfe, clunff to his 
" pecuhar institution " even while groaning over a sterile soil, want, 
and general discontent. 

The state of morals and religion in Yirginia at this period was de- 
plorable. The colony was settled by a few leading families and a large 
mass of the abandoned classes of the old world, neither of which paid 
any great regard to religion. The English Church, which became 



EiS^ocH George. 151 

legally established in the colony, maintained little more than a form 
of religion. The clergy were often worldly men, sometimes of loose 
and exceptionable morals, more given to sports than to the work of 
2)reaching the gospel ; and of course the people, nnder such guides, 
could be expected to occupy only a low moral position. The picture 
of the state of societ}'- given by Mr. George is vivid and expressive : — 

''I well remember," he says, "that among both the aged and 
young but few had a clear and satisfactory knowledge of the moral 
obligations connected with the precepts of the gospel. We went to 
church on the Lord's day, and when we returned the old spent their 
time in eating and drinking, and the young in vanity and wickedness. 
Our country abounded with dancing schools and dancing masters. 
Young ladies and gentlemen, before they could appear in the circles 
of polished society, had to learn systematically the arts of reveling and 
dissipation, and all the eccentric and odd gesticulations that they and 
their teachers could invent." 

Among such a people he received his early training, and almost 
necessarily felt the infection of the evil examples by which he was 
surrounded, from the direct consequences of which he was saved only 
by wise parental counsels and the instructions of exceptionably faith- 
ful ministers. Lessons of industry and labor, usually neglected and 
despised in a slave-holding community, were inculcated by his father, 
and they secured to him that physical vigor, energy of character, and 
hopeful courage which became such important elements in 23rosecuting 
the duties of his itinerant career. The battle of that day was against 
giants, and required in the combatants robust and sturdy men, who 
shrank from no labor and feared no contest or strug-prle. 

With this prudential training Mr. George received the amount and 
kind of religious instruction usual in a family where religion is merely 
a form. They attended the Church of England, rather because it was 
fashionable than as a means of spiritual instruction and edification. 
That this attendance on public worship was a mere form is evident 
from the fact that all religious services were absent from the household, 
and that the hours of recreation were spent in dancing and amusement. 

The moral and religious condition here described appears the more 
remarkable when we remember that the community was blessed with 
the labors of such a minister as the Rev. Devereaux Jarratt, whose 



152 Methodist Bishops. 

reputation for zeal, holiness, sound doctrine, and evangelistic labors 
for the salvation of the people extended through all the Chnrches. 
He was a Methodist before Methodism ; a voice in the wilderness 
earnestly preaching repentance ; " a bright and shining light," unfold- 
ing the whole counsel of God in law and gospel, and by his fervid 
appeals to the conscience rousing many to seek a better experience. 

Among those who profited by the faithful labors of this man of 
God was our subject, who plainly saw that within the husk of external 
services there was to be sought and found a germ of religious life — a 
personal experience — which could be produced only by the Spirit in 
co-operation with the individual agent. The earnest denunciations of 
sin produced in him deep conviction, and the view of the promises 
induced him to cry to God for salvation. For some months this state 
continued, and with suitable encouragement he would no doubt have 
persevered till he come into a state of religious peace and joy ; but, sur- 
rounded as he was by the dead forms of Christianity, his feelings were 
concealed, and he relapsed into a condition of coldness and indifference. 

Meantime the family removed to another locality, thus depriving 
them of the faithful ministrations and Christian example of Mr. Jar- 
ratt, but introducing them to a new sect, then every-where spoken 
against, but destined to prove influential in giving a new direction and 
shape to the life of young George. Methodism, then beginning to. 
penetrate that region and to excite the opposition of the formal and 
decayed Churches, was a name of reproach. The preachers were 
mostly Englishmen, some of them designing to remain here only tem- 
porarily, and hence refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the Revo- 
lutionary Government, which lent to the whole sect the suspicion of 
Toryism, a name in that day exceedingly odious. From a sect so sus- 
picious no good seemed attainable, and in the services in the parish 
church there was still less to hope, for the clergyman, like many in 
the region, was so immoral that no one could repose confidence in 
him. Drinking, gaming, and horse-racing allowed little place to the 
word of God. 

The situation of the family in this new condition appears deplora- 
ble in the extreme, and liable to conduct them to utter irreligion and 
immorality. But Brovidence was leading them more wisely than they 
knew. They were to find in the despised sect of Methodists the 



Enoch George. 153 

messengers of God wlio were to open to tliem the liidden treasures 
of the gosj^el, and to conduct their feet into the j)aths of peace. 

The iirst agent who was to bear the glad tidings to tliis family 
was John Easter, an evangelist renowned in his day, and whose mem- 
ory in the Church will ever remain fresh. Young George at first 
heard his message with levity, but on being reproved for his con- 
duct by his father, he gave more candid attention to the gospel. He 
accompanied the family to the service, and, after a plain and practical 
sermon by a circuit preacher, John Easter arose to give an exhorta- 
tion, " and his words came with such power that the multitude trem- 
bled, and numbers began to cry aloud for mercy." As the speaker 
continued, growing more effective as he progressed, some began to fall 
down and weep. One of these persons fell so near Mr. George that 
he was at once frightened and convicted. He tried to leave the spot, 
but found himself unable. When the meeting was over^ he resolved 
that he would never be found at a Methodist revival meeting: 
again.* 

Notwithstanding his dislike of the service, he was induced by his 
father on the ensuing Sabbath to go again, and as the work deepened 
about him in the community he found himself almost irresistibly 
attracted to the cross, and his soul emerged into the light and beauty 
of the gospel. The evidence of his acceptance was not at first clear, 
biit he continued to pray and struggle till he realized the witness of 
the Spirit to the fact of his adoption. " From that day until now," 
he said in the latter part of his life, "I have never doubted my 
conversion to Christ, and my adoption into his family." 

Having entered this satisfactory religious state of mind, the ques- 
tion of Church membership became an important one. What Church 
should he join? The Episcopal was the one in which he had been 
trained, and for which his family cherished old-time attachments ; but, 
on the other hand, the' new Methodist organization presented evidences 
of spiritual life in which the Episcopal Church of that day was exceed- 
ingly deficient. The clergyman of the place was not regarded as a 
converted man, and, of course, could not be expected to be in deep 
sympathy with vital religion, or to preach the deeply-spiritual truths of 
the gospel. These considerations formed an almost insuperable barrier 

* Fry's " Life of George," p. 17. 



154 Mi/THODisT Bishops. 

to liis continued connection witli the Cliurcli of liis birtli, and induced 
the family to cast in their lot with tlie disciples of Wesley. 

In the new associations, from which so much good had been real- 
ized, he expected to find all the members unexceptionable in conduct 
and life ; but, like many before him, he was doomed to be disap- 
pointed. The Church on earth is composed of fallible men who, at 
best, are struggling to become conformed to the divine image, and 
may become the refuge of those who do not seek this conformity, of 
which Mr. George soon found evidence. After joining the class he 
had set up the family altar in his father's house, and expected in all 
other Methodist families to find the same service. What was his sur- 
prise to find that the family where he boarded at school maintained no 
family worship, and that the head of the family was addicted to the 
use of intoxicating liquors ! iteligion with them was a mere show 
and pretense. The trial of his faith at this revelation of hypocrisy 
was severe, but in the end proved beneficial, in showing him the 
weakness of man, and in cutting him loose from human support. 

In those earnest days of Methodism converts at once engaged in 
the public services, in prayer and exhortations ; and in the exercise of 
these gifts the talents of young George became known to the Church, 
and so favorably impressed the leading men that he was at once thought 
to be divinely designated to the work of the ministry. The suggestion 
of these convictions of his brethren was the occasion of great pain and 
struggles to. one who cherished both an exalted opinion of the respon- 
sibilities of the ministerial ofiice, and of his own deficiencies for the 
work. He would have shrunk from the task, but at the instance of 
the whole Church, he was induced to try his gift at exhortation. 

The experiment is given us in his own words : " The circuit preacher 
having ofiiciated at a watch-night, they induced him to call on me for 
a word of exhortation. That he was intending to do this I was aware 
before the meeting began, and by going late and hiding myself, I 
expected to escape. In this fancied concealment I sat and listened to 
an insipid sermon, which was no sooner concluded than the preacher 
called for me by name. This so affrighted me that I sat down upon the 
floor ; but he continued calhng me till an acquaintance answered that 
I was there, and a friend led me to the table, where, with trembhng 
and weeping, I exhorted. This was the beginning of my ministry." 



Exocii GeopvGe. 1 



iJO 



Tills "unpromising commencement proved to be tlie starting-point 
of an admirable career in the itinerancy, tlie record of wliicli can here 
be only slightly touched. In 1789 he began to travel with Philip Cox, 
who was not only a traveling pre^her, but also the " book steward " 
of the Church, and who became the theological tutor of his new col- 
league, and inducted him into all the mysteries of the itinerant work. 
He remained with Cox only until the latter had an opportunity to 
present him to Asbury. 

" In our course," says George, " we met Bishop Asbury, and Brother 
Cox said to him, ' I have brought you a l)oy^ and if you have any thing 
for him to do you may set him to work.' The bishop looked at me for 
some time ; at length calling me to him, he laid my head upon his knee, 
and stroking my face w^ith his hand, he said, ' Why, he is a beardless 
boy, and can do- nothing.' I then thought my traveling was at an end." 
The result, however, was better than he anticipated, for he w^as assigned 
to the itinerant ranks, and sent to assist David Asbury on the Pamlico 
Circuit in iSTorth Carolina, a field peculiarly difficult to cultivate on 
account of the indifference and worldliness of the jDcople, and of their 
prejudice against the doctrines and modes of the Methodists. 

That a young man just starting out in the ministry should feel 
these discouragements was natural, but a few words from Asbury, his 
great chief and counselor, inspired in him fresh courage, and sent him 
on his way with a glad heart. 

In 1790 he was admitted on probation in the Conference, and 
appointed with Henry Ledbetter to travel the Pamlico Circuit. In the 
course of the year, by a usage of the times to change the men in the 
intervals of Conference, he traveled the Caswell and Poanoke Circuits 
with a fair degree of success. 

In 1791 he returned to the Caswell Circuit. In 1792 he enjoyed 

an extensive revival on Guilford Circuit, adjoining his former field, 

and aided, so far as he was able, to allay the troubles occasioned by 

the secession of James O'Kelly, a schismatic who denounced and left 

the Church because the appointing power was not taken from the 

bishop and placed in the hands of local men, a plan which would have 

given us several ecclesiastical fragments instead of the grand Church 

of Methodism of to-day. 

The movement had thus far been confined mostly to the middle 
10 



156 Methodist Bishops. 

States ; but the great soiil of Asbiiry longed to extend the glad tidings 
to the remotest sections of the land. He was often embarrassed by 
the localizing tendency of the preachers, who fonnd it easier to culti- 
vate tlie fields already occupied than to open new ones in the new and 
remote parts of the continent. At the Conference he called for 
recruits to go to the South. George, inspired with the missionary spirit, 
volunteered to go to South Carolina, where he remained until 1797. 

"My labors," he says, in speaking of this field, "were of the most 
painful kind ; in a desert land among almost impassable swamps, and 
under bilious diseases of every kind, which unfitted me for duty while 
in Charleston, or among the hospitable inhabitants of the Pine Barrens. 
In the midst of all this my mind was stayed upon God, and kept in 
perfect peace. Prospects in general were encouraging." The spiritual 
dearth of this region was, however, the occasion of greater pain than 
the labors and hardships of his itinerancy. " When God was reviving 
his work he was always happy, whatever might be the state of his 
health, and no labor was too hard if souls could be converted to God." 

In 1796 he was made presiding elder of the Charleston District, 
and the next year of the Georgia District, where he witnessed exten- 
sive revivals of religion. In the course of the year the rupture of a 
blood-vessel obliged him to desist from his labors, and to return north. 
In 1798 he undertook to travel the Brunswick Circuit, but proved to 
be too feeble in health to continue to the close of the year, which 
induced him to ask a location. 

On retiring from the itinerancy he engaged in teaching, but he 
was too deeply interested in the extension of the work of God to 
refrain from preaching. Hence we soon find him again ^proclaiming 
the gospel on the Pockingham Circuit ; and in 1800 he was re-admitted, 
and made presiding elder of the Potomac District, where again his 
health soon failed, and at the Conference of 1801 he once more asked 
for a location, because he would not depend on his brethren when 
unable to labor with them. 

As the hope of being able to re-enter the itinerancy was abandoned, 
he now retired to Winchester, and resumed his former occupation of 
teaching. Thoughts of a settlement for life led him to enter the mar- 
riage relation, which seemed to exclude him forever from the hope of 
a further participation in labors with his itinerant brethren. The 



E]Srocii George. 157 

duties of his school absorbed his attention ; but, at the same time, he 
could not be content merely to communicate secular knowledge. He 
labored and prayed for the conversion and spiritual elevation of his 
pupils, a course which resulted in an extensive and gracious revival. 
He was still the preacher in his school as well as out of it ; and the 
measure of success here enjoyed inflamed anew his desire to enter a 
broader field. The season was one of extensive revivals in that whole 
region, and the labors in carrying them on were fully participated in 
by Mr. George. 'No work was to him so agreeable as that of preach- 
ing, and of leading souls to the Lord Jesus. Under its stimulus his 
health improved, and he came to feel an insatiable desire to be in the 
regular work. 

In 1803 we find him uniting with the Baltimore Conference, and 
laboring wdtli great zeal and success on the Frederick Circuit. His 
popular gifts . and wise counsels induced the bishop in 1804 to place 
him on the Baltimore District, where he enjoyed great popularity and 
success ; and in 1805-6 he administered, with equal wisdom, the affairs 
of the Alexandria District. Those were the days of great quarterly 
meetings, when the labors of the presiding elder were extensive and 
arduous ; and the strain upon the physical constitution of Mr. George 
proved again to be too great, so that he returned the next year to a 
station. He filled successively the Georgetown, Frederick, Mont- 
gomery, and Baltimore charges, in all of which he enjoyed his former 
measure of popularity, and was allowed to witness precious fruits of 
his labor. 

The succeeding four years (1811-1815) were spent in discharging 
the duties of presiding elder on the Potomac District, with many 
tokens of the divine favor. The quarterly meetings were occasions of 
great power, the multitudes in attendance being often thrilled by his 
ardent and eloquent words. 

The season was not, however, one of unalloyed satisfaction. His 
popular and attractive gifts were tempered by afiliction in his house- 
hold. The removal of his beloved wife by death left in his care the 
children with which God had blessed them, a charge which was to 
him the occasion of no little anxiety, as he desired to train them in 
" the nurture and admonition of the Lord," and in order to do so it 
seemed necessary to keep them together. But how could they 



158 Methodist Bishops. 

remain together during liis jDrotracted and necessary absences ? How 
could lie find persons who would properly care for their habits, train- 
ino% and relio^ious culture ? 

The General Conference of 1816, of which he had been chosen a 
member, assembled in May, in the City of Baltimore, to review the 
interest and work of the Church. The efforts of the handful of 
itinerants who had been sweeping through the land, had been greatly 
blessed; large numbers of people had been gathered into the fold 
through the agency of the many precious revivals in which Mr. George 
had borne a conspicuous part. 

But, amid all their prosperity, changes were passing over the 
leaders of the militant host. The venerable Asbury, who had gone in 
and out before them from the beginning, had just 23assed off the 
stage ; and M'Kendree, the only surviving bishop, was too feeble to per- 
form the many onerous duties of his extensive charge. . This state of 
things rendered the strengthening of the episcopacy needful ; and, in 
casting about for candidates, Enoch George and Robert R. Roberts were 
elected. Mr. George was elected on the 14th of May, by fifty-seven 
out of one hundred and six votes. " His commanding power and suc- 
cess as a preacher," observes one of his associates, ''no doubt elevated 
him to the episcopacy." 

That he felt the office to be no sinecure will be e\ddent to the 
reader from the reflections he has left on the subject : 

" I can truly say that my mind was ' tossed with tempest ' on this 
occasion. I must leave my children for one and two years together, 
without the possibility of doing any thing personally for them, or 
neglect the duties of my high and responsible station. But my duty 
to God and the Church prevailed, and I gave myseK and children to 
him who clothes the lilies of the field, and feeds the sparrows, and in 
wliose eyes we are of much more value than they. I then gave 
myself to the work. In it all my views were realized, and I found 
that the ofiice of an American superintendent or bishop is the most 
arduous and responsible in the Church. He who discharges the duties 
of this office will find no time for loitering or self-indulgence. He 
must diligently, regularly, steadily, and perseveringly hold on his 
course to the end, ' not counting his life dear unto him.' " 

As here intimated, the twelve years he spent as a bishop were full 



Eis-Qcii George. 159 

of labors and cares. Who is able in this day of railroads and steam- 
boats to estimate the toilsome journeys he made from Canada to the 
Gulf of Mexico, and from the far east of Maine to the far west of the 
Mississippi valley ? These labors were iAie more arduous as there was 
a heavy demand on him, not only for administrative services on 
account of the feebleness of his colleague's health, but also for preach- 
ing, which he greatly enjoyed, though it proved to be a severe tax on 
his strength. The election, in 1824, of Soule and Hedding, afforded 
him relief, as they were able to take more tlian their share of the bur- 
dens and responsibilities of the office. Though eased in his work, he 
continued to labor, as strength and opportunity allowed, to the end ; 
so that '' he ceased at once to work and live." 

The closing scenes of his life were marked by Christian peace and 
holy triumph. At the close of the General Conference of 1828, wdiich 
had been an occasion of unusual care and responsibility, he started on 
his southern tour to attend, among others, the ITolston Conference. As 
w^as the custom. of the time, he often preached on his route. • On the 
30th of August he preached at Harrison ville, under the pressure of .a 
severe indisposition ; but the next day, anxious to reach the seat of 
the Conference, he pressed forward some twenty-four miles to Staun- 
ton, Ya., where an attack of dysentery obliged him to desist. Rev. 
Basil Barry, the preacher in charge of the circuit, visited him and 
learned that he had been so severely affected as to be often obliged on 
the way to lie down upon the ground. 

Though so severely afflicted, he did not appear to be at all alarmed, 
as he retired to rest without calling a physician, in the hope that rest 
would restore him ; but in this he was entirely mistaken, as the 
disorder continued with unabated violence, even after a physician 
had been called. 

On Thursday, September 14th, while a number of his brethren 
were sitting about him, he said, "Brethren, you must excuse me, I 
am too weak to talk to you. All I can say is, if I die, I am going to 
glory ! For this I have been living forty years." 

The next day, he sent for Rev. Mr. Barry, and stated to him 
that he was very low, and requested him, in case of death, that he 
would bear the tidings to his friends in Baltimore. At the bishop's 
suggestion he then read the fourteenth and fifteenth chapters of St. 



160 Methodist Bishops. 

Jolm's Gospel. At the close of the reading the bishop offered some 
reflections on the passages, closing with saying, " What a body of 
divinity and valuable truth is contained in these chapters ! " 

Although death was near, he still cherished the hope of being able 
soon to pursue his journey. On the 20th of September, at his request, 
arrangements were made for that purpose ; but he was found to be 
too feeble to ride, l^ature was prostrated ; but he endured intense 
pain with great patience. The next day, yielding all hope of recovery, 
he said to his friends, ''I feel now that a change has taken place." 
Alarmed at this suggestion, they called in three physicians for consul- 
tation ; but in this advanced stage of the disease the utmost medical 
skill was unavailing. To some of his brethren present he said, 
" Eejoice with me ; I am going to glory." The expression was 
repeated many times during the day. The earth appeared to him to 
be receding, and as heaven burst upon his vision he grew rapturous 
in the deeper revelations of glory. As the day advanced he attained 
a still higher spiritual elevation, till, amid the waves of rapturous joy 
and holy triumph, clasping his hands, he exclaimed, "Shout glory 
to God ! The best of all is, God is with us." 

At night he requested to be left alone. On being asked if he had 
any business matters to arrange, he said, " J^othing of importance," and, 
his mind absorbed in spiritual contemplation, he added, " I am going 
to glory ! I have been many years trying to lead others to glory, and 
now thither I am going. For me to live is Christ, but to die is gain. 
Jesus is precious ! " These w^ere his last words. As the morning of 
Saturday, September 23d, 1828, dawned, his happy spirit took its 
flight from earth. He died among strangers ; but he lived in the 
memory of multitudes who had been led by him to the Lamb of God. 

At the General Conference of 1832 Bishop M'Kendree, by 
request, commemorated his virtues and labors in a funeral discourse. 

The humility of the bishop was such that he would never consent 
to have his portrait taken. He lives only in the descriptions of those 
who w^ere associated with him. According to these accounts he pos- 
sessed a large, well-formed person, a noble bearing, an earnest as]3ect. 
In conversation or meditation he stood erect, often with his hands 
crossed behind his back ; but wdien walking he was slightly inclined, 
and moved with a quick, short step. 



Enoch George. 161 

" His face was broad," sajs one who knew him, " his forehead 
prominent and well spread ; his nose large and rather flat ; his eyes of a 
blue cast and deep set in their sockets ; his eyebrows dark and consid- 
erably projected ; his month and lips were in dne proportion with the 
other features of his face. He had a full suit of hair, dark and mixed 
with gray. It appeared rather neglected, yet graceful, hanging about 
his neck. His complexion, w^hicli was originally fair, had became sal- 
low through excessive exposure and fatigue. Whatever impression 
his strongly-marked countenance might have been calculated to give 
had it been molded by the internal workings of corrupt and malig- 
nant passions, in the light of the holy affections which beamed in it 
there were charms displayed that rendered it lovely, and will impress 
its image indelibly on the affectionate remembrance of the numerous 
friends who had the pleasure of his acquaintance." 

In the work of stationing the preachers he was kind and sym- 
pathetic, but firm. He had a heart to feel all the sorrows of his 
brethren in carrying on the itinerant work, but a clear head and firm 
purpose to see and sustain the true interests of the cause. The work, 
with him, was of vital consequence ; the men, both lay and clerical, 
w^ere deemed of less importance. 

In one of his last years, when presiding at the J^ew York Confer- 
ence, a brother was wanted in the work in Yermont ; but he wished 
to be appointed near his wife's friends in the vicinity of 'New York. 
The bishop sent him to a circuit in that region, probably not in the 
grade he expected. The preacher made an outcry : — 

" I thought you was to give me an appointment to accommodate 
me near my wife." 

The bishop replied : '' We could not give you the church where 
your wife lives ; we sent you as near as we could." 

" You have not accommodated me at all," he continued ; " and I 
cannot go to my appointment." 

''Go home, then, and take care of your wife and stay with her." 

'' But what will the circuit do ? " 

" I will take care of the circuit," added the bishop. " You only 
take care of your wife." 

In the days of struggle and labor in which George had the fortune 
to live, peculiar force and energy of character were required to in- 



162 Methodist Bishops. 

sure success. In George these traits Tvere conspicuous to tlie very 
close of his life. 

" He could not bear the tardiness of great numbers about him," 
one remarks, " for he thought rapidly, spoke fluently, and made his 
decisions with great promptness. This spirit was carried into the 
conference work, and on some occasions it gave cause for feelings of 
offense on the part of his brethren ; for his disposition to press every 
thing rapidly forward inclined him to signify his disapprobation of any 
course of proceeding that retarded the progress of business, especially 
protracted and unimportant discussion." In this respect his good quali- 
ties were in excess. He was adapted rather to the public congregation, 
where great activity and zeal are in demand, than to the deliberative 
body, where matters move with a more measured and slower tread. 

In private life the character of Bishop George shone in a clear and 
mellow light. In the family and social circle he was an enjoyable 
companion and friend. Of a hopeful and sunny temperament, disposed 
to view the more favorable side of things, he was prepared to con- 
tribute to the happiness of all with whom he came in intimate contact. 
Religion, in his case, came in to aid nature, for his religion was of a 
hopeful and jubilant kind. He had no love for a sour godliness, a 
depreciatory view of the gracious provisions of mercy in the gospel. 

As might be supposed from these characteristics, his piety was 
deep, ardent, and permanent. The new life in him was no evanescent 
fire, but a pure and perpetual flame. " It was in his religious life," 
says Stevens, "that his characteristics shone most conspicuously. His 
piety was profound and tender, and glowed till he seemed at times 
incandescent Avith. divine light." 

His devotion was exhibited in his habits of private prayer. " He 
certainly exceeded," says one of his friends, who was well acquainted 
with him in j)rivate life, " any person I ever knew in private prayer. 
Wrapping his cloak about him, he would continue over half an hour, 
praj^ng, groaning, wrestling, and agonizing ; thus had he close and 
intimate communion with God. This accounts for the holy unction 
that generally attended his preaching." 

In traveling he often found many inconveniences in attending to 
his duty, and on these occasions he not unfrequently resorted to the 
open field or to the grove early in the morning or during the twilight 



Enoch George. 163 

of tlie evening, usually taking with him a friend when one was at hand. 
He Ti&ed to say to his intimate friends, " This is the principal relief 
and comfort my poor sonl receives in the mid^t of my incessant travels 
and constant pressure of business." 

The great Wesley an doctrine of perfect love, so prominent a 
feature in the preaching of the early Methodists, was embraced and 
cherished by Bishop George. " His theme," says Rev. A. Atwood, 
" was holiness, in the jDulpit and out of it, because he enjoyed it 
himself. It burned in his soul like a fire that is unquenchable. x\ll 
who heard him knew and felt that he held steady communion with 
God. To the praise of men and the honors of the world he appeared 
to be as dead as was the sainted Fletcher. In the midst of his sermon 
I have often seen him stop, and, lifting his eyes toward heaven, cry 
out, in a plaintive tone, ' O Thou who lightest the lamps of glory, save 
the Methodist Church from freezing up ! ' And amens would follow 
it all over the congregation, in old Methodist style : the sympathy and 
feeling would be so intense that the house seemed filled with praise. 
Bishop George used the word glory in a manner and with a tone a 
little different from all others." 

The devotional spirit exhibited in this admirable man could not 
fail to give color and tone to his preaching. It led him to treat of 
the higher and richer features of the gospel, and to labor to secure 
the immediate salvation of men. As a preacher he was evangelical, 
searching, earnest ; and at the same time warm, genial, and cheerful. 

As a revivalist he possessed eminent qualities in his deep and 
intense zeal and devotion, in his love of souls, and in his fine gifts for 
convincing and persuading men. He lived in a revival period, imbibed 
the revival spirit, and led many souls to the Lord Jesus. 

" He was," says Stevens, " among the most effective preachers of 
his day. An extraordinary pathos melted his audiences and himself, 
and he often had to pause in the midst of his sermons and ask his 
hearers to join him in utterances of thanksgiving, while with tears 
streaming down his weather-worn face he would raise his spectacles, 
and with uplifted eyes and hands offer praises to God, bearing aloft his 
thronged congregations, thrilled, weeping, and adoring. The elder 
Methodists throughout the country still recall him with veneration as 
the weeping prophet of the episcopacy." 



164 Methodist Bishops. 

•' His sermons," sajs another, " were full of energy, pathos, and the 
Holy Ghost ; they were calculated to do much good." Says another, 
" He was a good minister of the E'ew Testament, great in zeal, great 
in energy, great in usefulness, and if he had no abiding place here, 
he had a home in heaven." Dr. Bangs, who knew him well, refers to 
him as " naturally eloquent, and his eloquence was all natural." 

The pathos exhibited in his preaching is often referred to in 
records left by his contemporaries. " You northern men," he said after 
listening to a northern preacher, "are always for" system; but we 
southern men like to wet the eyes of our congregations." " Although 
I have heard him many times," says one, " I never heard him preach 
a dry sermon." 

Bishop George was a favorite preacher on special occasions, such 
as dedications, camp-meetings, and Conferences, when his eloquence 
often became overjDOwering on his large audiences. His commanding 
presence, full and sonorous voice, and personal enthusiasm seldom failed 
to meet the demands of the occasion. Men who heard him never 
failed in such times to be impressed. In one of those seasons Rev. 
W. C. Larrabee describes his experience thus : " I wept, whether for 
joy or sadness I could not tell ; I wept and could not help it. I had, 
however, no reason to try to help it, for on looking over the congre- 
gation I i^erceived all others as much affected as myself, and even 
more so ; for many of the peoj)le were laughing, crying, and shouting 
at the same time." 

From another of his hearers I have received a similar description. 
" His text," says Rev. C. L. M'Curdy, who heard him in his last years, 
" was Matt, xxiv, 14 : ' This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in 
all the world.' He began by thrice repeating the text with variations 
of the emphasis. ' TMs gosjpel shall be preached ; ' again, ' this 
gospel SHALL he jyreacTied / ' and still again, ' This gospel shall be 
preached in all the world!' After this repetition, pausing with emo- 
tion as the tears fell from his uplifted eyes and were wiped away with 
the fingers of both hands, he shouted triumphantly, * Glory, glory to 
God in the highest ! ' ' This gospel will he preached in all the world.' 
Thus launched into the heart of his discourse, he went on to the close 
amid the shouts and tears of the people." 




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Robert Richford Roberts, 



BY REV. MATTHEW SIMPSON, D.D., LL.D. 



CIIXTH on the list of Methodist bishops stands the name of Robert 
kJ RioiiFORD Roberts, a man of apostolical simplicity, purity, and 
labor. In his history is exemplified the providential care exercised by 
the Head of the Church in qualifying his laborers for their peculiar 
work. He was called to be the superintendent of an active and grow- 
ing branch of the Christian Church in the midst of a new and rapidly 
increasing population. In his work he must be exposed to dangers 
and privations. He must thread his way through dense forests, or 
across the unsettled prairie. He must climb the mountain or swim 
the swollen river. He must lodge in the rude cabin or in the open 
air. He must not only face the dangers of nature, but must bear the 
obloquy and reproach, the taunts and persecutions, to which the early 
apostles of Methodism were so frequently exposed. Yet, withal, he 
must be kind and gentle, " in meekness instructing those that oj)pose 
themselves." He must have a loving spirit, joined with great firmness 
and decision, and with executive ability and tact. He must organize and 
unify elements widely diverse, and bring into loving association people 
from almost every land, and from every phase of society. For such a 
work he needed a strong physical constitution, and great power of 
endurance ; a clear, calm intellect, and steady purpose ; the skill and 
daring of a general, and the meekness and love of a saint ; the heart 
of a lion, and the tenderness and gentleness of a woman. To develop 
such a character the associations of his youth and early manhood were 
eminently fitted. 

He was born in Frederick County, Maryland, August 2, 1778, and 
was the third son of Robert Morgan Roberts and Mary Richford, both 
of whom were natives of Maryland. His father's ancestors were from 
Wales, his mother's from Ireland. Early in the revolutionary struggle, 
his father, who was a farmer, entered the army, and was in the battles 
of Brandywine, Germantown, and White Plains. 



168 Methodist Bishops. 

At about four years of age young Roberts was placed in school. 
where he continued until he was seven. He there acquired the knowl- 
edge of the simple elements of an English education, which in later 
years would have been for him impracticable. Shortly after the close 
of the war, public attention was called to the country west of the 
Alleghany Mountains. Its cheap lands, healthy chmate, and fertile soil, 
attracted many a farmer, and a tide of immigration flowed westward. 

In 1785 Mr. Roberts's father sold his property in Maryland, and 
removed to Ligonier Yalley, in Westmoreland County, Pa. The coun- 
try was new, schools were few and distant, and the necessity for labor 
in opening a new farm required constant attention. The opportuni- 
ties for education were thus very restricted, and what young Roberts 
acquired subsequently was chiefly the result of his reading, observa- 
tion, and study. He had been taught from infancy by a pious mother 
the knowledge and worship of God, and his habits were pure and 
simple. His parents had been attached to the Church of England, 
and prior to their removal west he had attended that service, and had 
been instructed in its catechism and prayers, having been baptized in 
infancy by a minister of that Church. In western Pennsylvania the 
early settlers were chiefly Presb}i;erians of the different branches then 
existing in Scotland and in the north of Ireland, from which many of 
the immigrants came. Before his removal his father had been warned 
by his clergyman against any religious alliance with the " sects," 
especially with the Methodists, who were represented as very danger- 
ous. In consequence of this admonition the family seldom attended 
religious services, and were almost deprived of religious privileges, 
other than reading the Holy Scriptures, a fev/ religious books, and on 
Sabbath some forms of prayer. 

About three years after their removal, a Methodist preacher visited 
the neighborliood, and held services at a private house. Notwith- 
standing their prejudices the younger members of the family began 
to attend. They, becoming interested and reporting favorably, were 
followed by their parents, who subsequently invited the minister to 
hold the services in their house. This step was of immense impor- 
tance to young Roberts. Thoughtful and serious, he enjoyed the con- 
versation and instruction of the preachers, and read with avidity the 
books which they from time to time furnished him. He became 



Robert Eichford Roberts. 169 

deeply interested, j^i'wed in secret, and his deportment was so circum- 
spect that when only thirteen years of age, and before he had united 
with the Church, he was appointed as the catechist for the children of 
the neighborhood, who met weekly, and learned the '' Instructions for 
Children." 

In his fourteenth year he experienced a consciousness of pardon, 
which he thus relates : " One day about sunrise, in the month of May, 
I was in the corner of the fence praying, when, I humbly trust, my 
sins were pardoned, and God, for Christ's sake, accepted me. Before 
that time I had frequently had sweet intimations of the goodness 
and mercy of the Lord. My heart was tender, and I felt as if I could 
love God and his people. But yet, until that morning, my mind was 
not at rest. Then every thing seemed changed. Nature wore a new 
aspect as I arose and went to my work with cheerfulness ; though, I 
own, I did not then know whether I liad received all that I should 
look for in conversion. I never had such alarming views of my con- 
dition as some have experienced ; my mind was gradually opened, and 
although I had always led a moral life, I firmly believed my heart 
must be changed. Owing to my youth, I cannot now remember the 
precise day of my conversion, though the scene as it occurred that 
morning has ever been deeply printed on my memory," 

Partly through timidity, and partly because his father advised 
against it on account of his youth, he did not immediately unite with 
the Church. He was, however, diligently attentive to the means of 
grace, and in his sixteenth year he was received as a member. Shortly 
after this period a deep impression took possession of his mind that 
he must preach. He studied the outlines of sermons, and sometimes 
alone, or in the presence of children, gave utterance to his thoughts. 
His serious manner, and his deeply religious life, led to his designation 
by common consent as a preacher. But his consciousness of lack of 
education, as well as his natural timidity, oppressed him. During one 
winter he embraced the opportunity of attending a school some miles 
from his home, working in a family every morning and evening for 
his boarding, and returning to labor for his parents on the farm on 
Saturdays. At this school he made unusual progress, and commanded 
the high respect as well of the scholars as of the teacher, who ever 
afterward was his warm friend and admirer. 



170 Methodist Bishops. 

Mean while Lis labor on the farm had developed a fine physical 
frame and a strong and vigorous constitution. He was athletic and 
active, and an expert marksman in securing the game with which the 
country abounded. He was also sympathetic and generous. At that 
period there was little wealth in the country. The Atlantic border 
had been devastated by war, and the West was an almost undeveloped 
wilderness. Most of the immigrants had scanty means. Their little 
stock of furniture and equipage was oftentimes packed in a single 
wagon drawn by horses or oxen. The men drove the team and cattle, 
if any, while the women walked or rode, as health and opportunity 
would permit. They took their meals by the way-side, and camped at 
night where wood and water could be procured for fire and cooking, 
and where, if possible, the weary animals might find grass or other 
forage on which to browse. Thus they made their long and tiresome 
journeys across the Alleghany Mountains and along the western streams. 
Beaching their destination, kind-hearted neighbors, though often 
miles distant, helped them to cut logs and erect simple cabin shelter. 
Thus chiefly the frontier border moved westward, and the country 
west of the Alleghany Mountains was filled with hardy and advent- 
urous settlers. Young Roberts was ever ready to welcome the new 
immigrants, and to lend a helping hand to aid in their arrangements. 

AMiile thus active on the farm and in out-door toils, he was also 
much in his mother's society. She was in delicate health, and the 
family was large. His older brothers could not well be spared from 
their toil, and while he was young his mother needed his assistance. 
He gladly aided her, and probably in this association he acquired much 
of that peculiar gentleness and suavity of manner that even to old age 
marked his intercourse in society. It also furnished him with a 
knowledge of domestic duties which prepared him more fully for the 
life of a pioneer. 

The Legislature of Pennsylvania, to promote the settlement of the 
country, offered four hundred acres of land on easy conditions to every 
settler in the north-western part of the State. "When about eighteen 
years of age he started with a few friends to explore the Chenango Tal- 
ley, and in the following year he made a permanent improvement on a 
farm in that region. In opening the farms the settlers were obliged to 
rely greatly on the game which the woods abundantly furnished. He 



Robert Riciiford Roberts. 171 

thus became more skillful as a marksman, and was accustomed to trace 
and follow obscure paths, and to mark courses in the densest forests. 
His tastes and habits were simple, and he could accustom himself to 
hardship and privation with but little inconvenience. Better educated 
than most of the early settlers, with mild and gentle manners, and 
withal hardy and adventurous, he became recognized as the leading 
man in society. His cabin became the central place of the neighbor- 
hood, and in it consultations were held and plans formed. It was 
also open to religious services. 

But whether on his father's farm or himself the pioneer in a new 
country — •whether cultivating the ground or pursuing the game — 
whether aiding new settlers in making selections of farms or planning 
works of improvement in his neighborhood — he was constantly 
haunted with the impression that he must preach 'the gospel of 
Christ. His books, though comparatively few, were chiefly of a relig- 
ious character, and were carefully studied, and the whole current of 
his life was directed toward the ministry of the word. 

In his twenty-first year he was married to Miss Elizabeth Oldham, 
a daughter of one of the early settlers, and a friend of his father's 
family. She was a young woman of more than ordinary strength of 
character, and was well fitted to share the inconveniences and difiicul- 
ties of a pastor's life. She was a careful and economical housekeeper, 
and was in full sympathy with her husband in reference to the min- 
istry. In the summer of 1800 he was induced to accept license as an 
exhorter, but could seldom be ]3ersuaded to engage in public services. 
After much deliberation and prayer, and after many mental conflicts, 
he finally resolved, in 1802, to give himself wholly to the work of the 
ministry. Under the advice of Rev. James Quinn he was licensed as 
a preacher, at Holmes' Meeting-house, near Cadiz, Ohio, where he was 
also recommended for admission into the Baltimore Conference. Plis 
first appointment was on Carlisle Circuit, under the charge of Rev. 
James Smith, and his residence was in York, Pa. The circuit em- 
braced York, Carlisle, Millerstown, and Thompsontown on the J uniata, 
and Shippensburgh, Chambersburgh, Gettysburgh, and other points, 
having about thirty appointments in four weeks. Such a circuit would 
appall even the adventurous minister of that day, yet by such toils and 
sacrifices were the foundations of Methodism laid. His introduction 



172 Methodist Bishops. 

into the ministry vrsa attended with more than ordinary suffering and 
discouragement, for before he had completed liis third round on his 
circuit he had the small-pox by inoculation, and subsequently the 
measles. He also lost the two horses belonging to himself and his 
wife, and which constituted the chief part of his means. The field 
was in many respects a difficult one. The whole conntry was under 
strong Calvinistic influence ; the Methodist Societies were few and 
poor, and were held by other Churches generally in low estimation. 
Xot unfrequently were their doctrines violently assailed, and their 
usages denounced and ridiculed. Yet his ministry was largely attended 
by the most intelligent portions of the community. The next year he 
was appointed to Montgomery Circuit, Maryland. Duiing the sum- 
mer, Iacv. Nicholas Snethen, a man of superior abilities, and who 
subsequently became one of the leaders in the Methodist Protestant 
Church, visited his circuit. He had traveled with Bishop Asbury in 
the TTest, and had come East for the purpose of introducing 
camp-meetings. These meetings had commenced in the West among 
the Presbyterians, especially in the Cumberland Yalley, and were 
extensively held by both Presbyterians and Methodists. Remarkable 
excitements and strange phenomena of falling and of various contortions 
sometimes accompanied them, and people came in their wagons from 
twenty to forty miles and remained for several days at them. Mr. 
Boberts took a deep interest in the arrangements, and attended the 
services. But when, under the preaching of Mr. Snethen, the people 
became excited and many fell in different parts of the congregation, 
he became very much troubled. To him all this was new. Quiet 
and thoughtful, though deeply devotional, his feelings were not in 
harmony with such manifestations. After, however, witnessing the 
results, and engaging earnestly in secret prayer, he was able to enter 
actively into the services. 

About this time he became acquainted with the German Method- 
ists called Otterbeins, after Be v. Mr. Otterbein, of the German 
Beformed Church. This eminent man had assisted in the ordination 
of Bishop Asbury. He adopted the general usages of the Methodist 
services and had a remarkable revival among his people. Mr. Boberts 
found the Otterbeins very friendly, they attending his services and 
he attending theirs. He ever regretted that there had not then been 



Egbert Riciifokd Roberts. 173 

a systematic effort to establish regular Methodist services in the Ger- 
man language. Some of their ministers did apply for admission into 
the Conference, but, having families, they were rejected. As the 
result they were alienated from the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 
his broad views he was in advance of his Church, but he lived to see 
and to rejoice in the establishment of such services a third of a 
century later. 

At the Conference of 1804 he was admitted into full connection, 
having passed his probation very acceptably, and being already favor- 
ably noticed for ministerial promise and power. At this Conference 
Bishops Coke and Asbury were in attendance, and there was also 
another minister named Roberts in the Conference. When Bishop 
Asbury called the name Robert R. Roberts, he .added, in a tone of 
pleasantry, " mountain-headed Roberts, not city Roberts," referring 
probably to the fact that he preferred the country, while his namesake 
preferred the city, and also to his large and stately appearance. His 
colleague in charge of the circuit replied, that he was unblemished in 
moral character, and that his head was a " complete magazine." He 
was ordained deacon by Bishop Asbury April 28th, 1804, and was 
appointed to Frederick Circuit, Maryland. ^As the General Confer- 
ence commenced a few days after, he had the opportunity of 
attending, where he saw and listened to the fathers of American 
Methodism. Among them were Bishops Coke, Asbury, and What- 
coat ; and also M'Kendree, Lee, Garrettson, and other famous men. 
Little did he then fancy the position which he would in a few years 
be called to take among them. 

In 1805 he was appointed to Chenango Circuit. It extended over 
Butler and Beaver Counties, Pa., and into Ohio as far as Yellow 
Creek, where Wellsville now stands ; there were also several appoint- 
ments on the Western Reserve. At that time there was no Meth- 
odist preaching in Pittsburgh, though a small Society had been or- 
ganized through the efforts of Mr. Wrenshall. He was a merchant 
on Market-street, was originally from England, and was a local 
preacher. He was a man of talent and influence, and one of his 
grand-daughters is the esteemed wdfe of our distinguished ex-Pres- 
ident Grant. At his invitation Mr. Roberts visited Pittsburgh, and 
preached in the old court-house, in the Diamond. But those who were 
11 



174 Methodist Bishops. 

hostile to Methodism met and commenced dancing up stairs. This so 
annoyed the congregation that they were obhged to leave. Mr. 
"Wrenshall promptly opened his house for services, and at the same 
time his large yard. But such was the spirit of opposition to the 
services that apples and sticks were frequently thrown at the preacher. 
ISTotwithstanding all opposition, however, he continued his services, 
and made a favorable impression on the public by his able sermons 
and dignified deportment. 

During the year Mr. Roberts was changed by his presiding elder 
to the Erie Circuit. As this circuit embraced the farm which he had 
opened, and on which there was water-power, he undertook to super- 
intend the erection of a mill. He did this because he supposed it 
would be profitable for the support of his family, and would relieve 
him from pecuniary anxiety. He regretted this course subsequently, 
and remarked to the writer, when giving him a sketch of his life in 
1842, as follows :— 

" I would advise all preachers never to quit the work of the Lord to 
serve tables. However fair their prospects of making money may be, 
they are frequently delusive, and such ministers are losers in the end. 
As I had but little support from quarterage, I thought my family 
could be maintained from a mill and I should be better able to travel 
without anxiety. But it was not so ; it embarrassed my mind and 
took up my attention ; and though for awhile it did well, it event- 
ually proved a loss." 

In 1806 he was ordained elder by Bishop Asbury, in Baltimore, 
and was re-appointed to Erie Circuit. He commenced religious serv- 
ices in Meadville, Pa., in Jamestown, IT. Y., and in other young and 
growing towns. But the labor was very severe, as much of the coun- 
try was unsettled. He was obliged frequently to make long jour- 
neys through forests with scarcely a path, and to swim streams so 
swollen that they were exceedingly dangerous. Oftentimes he was 
obliged to sleep either on the ground or in some open cottage on the 
bare floor. 

In 1807 he was appointed to the Pittsburgh Circuit. It then 
embraced the entire country between Laurel Hill and the Alleghany 
River, extending to Conemaugh, and Black Lick, and Brush Creek. 
It included Pittsburgh, Ligonier Yalley, Greensburgh, ConnellsviUe, 



Egbert Richford Roberts. 175 

Sewickley, and the regions between the Youghiogheny and Allegliany 
Kivers. The city of Pittsburgh, owing to opj^osition and discourage- 
ments, had been dropped from the appointments by his predecessor, 
but he resumed preaching in the second story of a workroom which 
had been used as sail-loft. Strange is it that so many of our city 
congregations worshiped for a time in sail-lofts. It is essentially the 
same story in E'ew York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh ; 
was it emblematical of a tendency to rapid diffusion ? 

As the circuit was large, and his family resided in Chenango, and 
as he desired to attend the General Conference, of which all traveling 
elders were then members, he did not attend the Annual Conference, 
which held its session in Georgetown, in the District of Columbia. 
In his absence complaint was made that he had neglected some of his 
appointments." The secretary was directed to write to him and to an- 
other absent minister, Mr. Page, a letter of admonition. IVIr. Page 
was so offended that he located and remained so for several years. 
But Mr. Roberts said, that if they deserved reproof it was the duty of. 
the Conference to give it; if they did not deserve it, as he believed 
they did not, it was their duty to bear it as a cross. They ought not 
to leave the Lord's work merely because the Conference had not 
rightly understood their case. He thus manifested his patience and 
humility, and evinced that spirit of submission to authority which 
is necessary for true order, and which is essential to one who is to 
govern wisely and well. 

At the Conference he was appointed to West Wheeling Circuit. 
Leaving his wife with an aunt, near Cadiz, he prepared for General 
Conference ; but, disappointed financially, he found himself with only 
two dollars for a journey of three hundred miles on horseback. Sup- 
plying himself, however, with some oats for his horse and with bread 
and cheese for himself, he succeeded in reaching Baltimore with fifty- 
four cents of his money left. 

At this General Conference the plan of a delegated General Con- 
ference was adopted after a long and earnest discussion. Prior to the 
adoption of the Restrictive Rules, which were designed to limit the 
powers of the General Conference, and to secure on a permanent basis 
the economy of the Church, the question of electing presiding elders 
by the Annual Conferences was fully discussed and finally negatived. 



176 Methodist Bishops. 

!Mr. Eoberts at tliat time favored the measure, and voted for it ; but, 
after observing the effect of elections in creating and snstaining party 
spirit, and after considering more fnlly the question of efficiency in 
action, he subsequently changed his opinions, as did also Dr. Bangs, 
and other leading men who at one time favored the measure. 

During this visit to Baltimore, though he wore the simple and 
even coarse garb of a '' backwoodsman," his preaching attracted large 
audiences, and Bishop Asbury was earnestly requested to station him 
in that city. The following November he received a letter from the 
bishop directing him to leave West "Wheeling Circuit and to proceed 
to Baltimore. The letter was so unexpected, and so contrary to his 
taste, that he was unwilling to go. He was modest and timid, and so 
distrusted his ability that he thought himself not qualified for the 
position. He had no money to pay traveling expenses, and he re- 
solved he would not go. Bishop Asbury wrote again, insisting on his. 
removal, and sent a preacher to supply his place. Still he hesitated 
— unlike many, who press for city appointments — even after the urgent 
solicitation of the bisho23, and was on the point of retiring from the 
work. His wife, however, as she had done on other occasions, urged 
him to duty, saying : " Bishop Asbury has great confidence in you, 
and it is your duty to obey liim. We have already undertaken many 
difficult journeys, and though we have neither money nor means we 
can accomplish this.'' ]R.aising a few dollars, they set out on horse- 
back, 'stoj^ping at night with acquaintances formed in ministerial 
travels, and during the day supplying themselves with the simplest 
fare, which they carried with them. 

So popular were his ministrations that his re-appointment was re- 
quested the next spring, and the following year he was stationed at 
Fell's Point. In 1811 he was appointed to Alexandria, Virginia, where 
he frequently changed pulpits with a Protestant Episcopal minister, 
for at that day, in Yirginia, the present exclusive notions of apostol- 
ical succession did not prevail. In 1812 he was appointed to George- 
town. There he was introduced to President Madison, who was so 
l^leased with him that he invited him to visit him privately. This he 
had the pleasure of doing, and he closed his interview with him and 
his lady with prayer. In 1813 and 1814 he was stationed in Philadel 
phia, where he wa& treated by persons of all denominations with great 



KOBEET ElCHFORD EOBERTS. 1?7 

respect. He preaclied a number of charity sermons among tlie Pres- 
byterians as well as in his own denomination, greatly to their satisfac- 
tion. In 1815 he was appointed presiding elder of the Schuylkill 
District, which embraced Philadelphia, his residence being the ^-hird 
story of the parsonage of St. George's Church. 

During that year occurred the secession of the colored membership 
in Philadelphia, which formed, under Pichard Allen, the African 
Methodist Episcopal Church. 

In the spring of 1816 Bishop Asbury died, a,nd as Bishop M'Ken- 
dree was in feeble health, there was no bishop to attend the Philadel- 
phia Conference. Although Mr. Poberts was the youngest of the j^re- 
siding elders, and had only recently become a member of that Confer- 
ence, he was chosen president by a decided majority. He presided 
with such mildness, propriety, and dignity as to command universal 
respect, and to attract the attention of ministers who were present. 
Several delegates from the New York, ISTew England, and Genesee 
Conferences were visiting Philadelphia, on their way to the General 
Conference in Baltimore. So favorably impressed were they with his 
appearance, with his bearing, his tact, and his executive ability, that 
he was at once selected as a probable nominee for bishop. Further 
acquaintance at General Conference confirmed their impressions, and 
on May 14, 1816, he was elected bishop, and was ordained by Bishop 
M'Kendree on the lYth. Pev. James Quinn, of Ohio, writing of this 
event, said : " Thus fifteen years after I heard him deliver his first 
exhortation I saw him placed in the episcopacy by the election of 
the General Conference and the ordination of Bishop M'Kendree. 
Though elevated to the most important ofiice in the Church, he still 
retained the character of being a modest, unassuming man." 

Such were his timidity and modesty that he thought his brethren 
had erred in his election, and only after a severe mental conflict and 
on the advice of intimate friends did he consent, to be ordained. 

We have now traced the steps by which the young pioneer 
advanced in his ministerial career until he was crowned with the 
highest honor which his Church could bestow. Never did he seek 
advancement, and scarcely was he will Ing to accept the " greatness 
thrust upon him." Nor is it marvelous that a thoughtful spirit 
should shrink from the vast responsibilities wdiich rest upon a bishop 



1T8 Methodist Bishops. 

in the Methodist Episcopal Church. It is his duty to aid in guid- 
ing the work of thousands of ministers, and of hundreds of thousands 
of people. His supervision is not confined to one locality or State, 
but is co-extensive with the boundaries of the Church. There must 
also be an element of unrest in a community which grows with great 
rapidity. When Bishop Roberts entered the ministry, in 1802, the 
membership numbered 86,73:1:. In 1816 it amounted to 214,235. 
Making allowance for deaths, more than two thirds of the member- 
ship had been added in fourteen years. That increase, too, must have 
been chiefly from those wlio had been either ignorant of our economy 
or hostile to it. In such a membership there must have been a great 
variety of views, and nothing but earnest activity and revival zeal 
could mold the diverse elements into a homogeneous body. The 
history of Methodism shows that whenever and wherever these have 
declined disintegration and secession have ensued. Having accepted 
the episcopal office, his first question was, where should he reside ? It 
would have been comfortable for him to have remained in Philadel- 
phia ; but the condition of the Church seemed to require his removal. 
Bishops Asbury, "Whatcoat, and M'Kendree were unmarried men, 
and their expenses had been comparatively small. Though Bishop 
Boberts had no children, yet he must have a residence, and some 
company for his wife in his long absences from home. In the West, 
on his farm or at some other point, he could live much more cheaply. 
The flnancial question thus drew him westward-. Above all, however, 
his heart yearned for the scenes of his youth and for the multitudes 
who were constantly on the borders of civilization. His associations 
had been chiefly with them, and his sympathy was with them still. 

Along that western border, unlike the present day, improvements 
progressed slowly. Kot only were there no railroads, but turnpikes 
were almost unknown, and transportation was exceedingly difficult. 
Few of the streams were bridged, and stages were on very few of the 
routes. To supply such a population w^ith religious services was no 
easy task. Congregations were slowly gathered, few church edifices 
could be built, and these of only the plainest character. In few 
places were the people able to support a pastor, and services could 
only be established by ministers who were willing to travel to and 
fro in the midst of hardship and poverty. To direct such a ministry. 



Robert Richford Roberts. 179 

and to infuse energy and activity into their movements, required one 
of a strong constitution, a person wlio himself j)erfectly understood 
western society, and who could thus command the sympathy of both 
preachers and people. Just such a leader the Church had found in 
Bishop Roberts, and to just such work he addressed all his energies. 
For three years his home was on Ids Chenango farm ; but in 1819, feel- 
ing that he ought to be more in the center of his work, he removed 
to Lawrence County, Indiana, whither some of his friends had preceded 
him. Here was his plain and quiet home until the day of his death. 
Many of his friends desired his removal to a more prominent point, 
and the Indiana Conference once passed resolutions requesting him to 
change his residence. Yet so simple were his tastes, and so fond of 
quiet and retirement was Mrs. Roberts, that they preferred to remain 
on their farm. 

Having determined the question of residence, some friends in Balti- 
more procured for him Bishop Asbury's carriage and traveling trunk, 
and himself, wife, and nephew were promptly on their way across the 
mountains. Scarcely had he time to arrange his domestic matters 
properly until he was called to start for his fall and winter Confer- 
ences. The journey was long and difficult, and performed chiefly on 
horseback. He attended the Mississippi Conference, at Natchez, and 
thence traveled through the South until the following spring. On the 
Mississippi he contracted the fever and ague, and was sick among the 
Indians. He was confined at Port Gibson for three or four weeks. 
No marvel that he was sick, as he was compelled to live almost wholly 
on sour hominy. 

Unfortunately for us, and for the Church, Bishop Roberts did not 
write a journal, nor was his correspondence carefully preserved. The 
" General Minutes ". did not then report what bishop presided in 
each Conference, and there were no weekly religious papers before 
1821 to report and preserve the proceedings. Hence there is no means 
of accurately tracing the work which he did on the journeys which he 
performed. We catch occasional glimpses of him, however, in some 
of his letters, and in items preserved by the memory of friends. We 
find him in the winter and early spring of 1818 coming from the South 
to the Virginia and Baltimore Conferences. On his route he lies out 
one night and holds his horse by the bridle to prevent his running 



180 Methodist Bishops. 

awaj. At Alexandria his wife meets him, having traveled all the way 
on horseback. After spending a few weeks, and visiting Philadelphia, 
their old home, she retnrns West, while he passes to 'New York, ISTew 
England, and Genesee. On his way home, in July, he subsisted for 
three days on blackberries. In 1819, as has been stated, he removed 
to Indiana, and we find him in a cabin, not only plain but unfinished. 
The evening meal is of roasted jDotatoes, the table being a hewed log 
raised a foot or two from the floor. He asks a blessing with a grateful 
heart ; but a fourteen-year-old niece retires to a corner, muttering that 
she could not see why her uncle should return thanks for a supper of 
nothing else in the world but roasted potatoes. That night the wolves 
howl around the cabin, to which there are neither doors nor windows, 
but a bright fire kept briskly burning prevents any attack. A few 
days, however, witnessed quite a change in the cabin and its surround- 
ings. Such was frontier life. IN'othing daunted or discouraged, the 
bishop went quietly and calmly forward. Though we cannot trace his 
work in detail, yet every four years the General Conference, composed 
of delegates from every Annual Conference, set their seal of approval 
to his administration, and gave him strong proofs of their affection 
and confidence. 

As he traveled in the simplest manner, and was excessively modest, 
many humorous incidents are told of young preachers mistaking him 
for some old farmer, and treating him scarcely with civility, while 
members of the Church with whom he lodged were often surprised to 
find they were entertaining an angel "unawares." An incident 
extensively published with the heading" "Bishop George and the 
Young Preacher," really occurred to Bishop Boberts, but the name of 
the young preacher he ever refused to give. 

As a presiding officer in the Conference he was calm and dignified, 
prompt and impartial. Though decided and firm, he was kind and 
patient. In his appointments he carefully studied the interests of 
both preachers and people, and endeavored to accommodate all as far 
as practicable. 'No amount of care, however, could prevent some min- 
isters from being afflicted, and there arose from 1820 to 1828 a strong 
party in the Church which endeavored to revolutionize its economy, 
and to overthrow the episcopacy. For this purpose a paper was pub- 
lished called the " Mutual Bights." The contest commenced on the 



Egbert RiciifoPwD Roberts. 181 

question of electing j)residing elders. In 1808, before the adoption of 
the Restrictive Rules, the matter was discussed and negatived. It was 
supposed by those who framed the Restrictions that no change could 
afterward be made affecting the appointing power without a reference 
of the question to the Annual Conferences. But some bretliren 
thought diiferentlj, and in 1816 they proposed as a modification that 
'the bishop should announce his nomination of presiding elder to the 
Conference, who should approve or reject without debate. If they 
rejected, he should nominate two others, one of wliom the Conference 
should choose. It was thought that this would not conflict with the 
Restrictive Rule, as in each case the bishop would appoint. But after 
discussion the resolution was voted down."^ It may be remarked, in 
passing, that at that time no proposition to elect by the Conference 
was seriously discussed. In 1820 a resolution was adopted that the 
bishop should nominate three ministers, one of whom the Conference 
should choose.f Bishop Soule, however, who had drawn up the Re- 
strictive Rules, and who had been elected bishop at that Conference, 
declared that the plan was a violation of the rules, and as he could 
not administer what he believed to be an unconstitutional law, he 
declined to accept the ofiice. Bishop M'Kendree joined in the opinion 
that the action was unconstitutional, as did also a large minority of the 
Conference. Under these circumstances the change was suspended 
for four years. :}: It was understood that this was to give the members 
of the Annual Conferences an opportunity of expressing their opinion 
of its constitutionality. It was laid before the different Conferences, 
and pronounced by a majority to be unconstitutional. § The report 
was made in 1824, and thereupon Bishop Soule was re-elected, and 
accepted. The Conference of 1828 pronounced the resolutions "re- 
scinded and void." 1 

But the dissatisfied ministers then attacked the episcopacy as a 
tyrannical institution, and represented that the people were oppressed. 
They became the advocates of lay delegation, to excite the people 
against the order of the Church. So bitter and acrimonious did the 
controversy become, that several of the most violent were expelled. 
The action of the General Conference of 1828 in disapproving the 

* " General Conference Journal," vol. i, pp. 135, 140, 141. flbid., p. 221. X Ibid., p. 23Y. 
§ " General Conference Journal," vol. i, p. 278. I Ibid., p. 332. 



182 Methodist Bishops 

agitation, and in approving the maintenance of the Discipline, deter- 
mined the leaders to secede. They claimed that a majority of the 
peoj^le were with them. In the fall of 1828 a convention was held, 
which issued ultimately in the formation of the Methodist Protestant 
Church. This body retained the doctrines and usages and general 
order of tlie Church, but abolished the episcopacy and presiding elder- 
ship. The seceders were greatly disappointed as to the number of' 
members who followed them. The Minutes of Conferences show a 
regular increase of members, more than supplying the places of those 
who withdrew. Thus from 1820 to 1824 the increase was about 
72,000 ; from 1824 to 1828, about 93,000 ; and from 1828 to 1832, the 
period of secession, about 127,000. The sejDaration of the Canada 
Conference also took place in this period, diminishing the number 
nearly 10,000. The Methodist Protestant Church has ever been 
respectable both in the number and character of its members, but its 
progress has not satisfied the expectations of its friends. 

The presiding eldership and the episcopacy were again attacked in 
the antislavery excitement, which culminated in the formation of the 
AYesleyan Methodist Church. This event occurred about the time of 
the death of Bishop Roberts, but the controversy had been in progress 
years before. That Church also, in its organization, rejected both the 
episcopacy and presiding eldership. Its subsequent history is well 
known. 

While during these excitements severe and exciting denunciations 
of the bishops were publicly made — while they were called " popes " 
and " usurpers " — the patriarchal appearance and the humble and loving 
manner of Bishop Roberts disarmed prejudice w^herever he went. The 
shafts of calumny fell harmless at his feet, and the heart of the Church 
throbbed for him and his colleagues with sympathy and love. 

ISTotwithstanding that the 23eriod of his episcopacy was one of trial, 
' as we have just seen, it was also one of vast moment in the Church's 
history. "When he was elected, in 1816, the members were, as has been 
stated, 214,235. In 1843, the year of his death, they amounted to 
1,068,525, having almost quintupled in twenty-seven years. JSTor was 
the prosperity shown only by numbers. The books issued by its press 
had vastly multiplied. A monthly magazine had been commenced in 
1818, which was afterward merged into the " Quarterly Review." The 



Robert Richford Roberts. 183 

" Christian Advocate " had begun its grand career in 1826, and Church 
papers were also established in Cincinnati, ISTashville, Charleston, and 
Eichmond. Besides these. Annual Conferences had patronized papers 
at Boston and Pittsburgh. 

Seminaries and colleo-es had also been established in various locali- 
ties, both N'orth and South, and a deep interest had been awakened on 
the subject of education. The Missionary Society had been instituted 
in 1819, and had sent ministers to several tribes of Indians on the 
frontier, and also to the Flat Head Indians, in Oregon. Missions had 
also been established in Liberia and South America. Preaching in the 
G-erman language had been commenced by Dr. N^ast, and encouraging 
progress had been made, and a German newspaper and religious books 
were published in Cincinnati. 

Unfortunately the excitement on the question of slavery had 
become very great, and the elements were gathering for that great 
storm which swept over the Church in 1844 and 1845, and wliich 
resulted in the separation of a large part of the work in the slave- 
holding States. 

In the winter of 1834 Bishop Roberts was severely ill in Louis- 
ville, and for some days there seemed little hope of his recovery. 
He, however, gradually but slowly recovered. Feeling his health 
impaired, in 1836 he proposed to tender to the General Conference his 
resignation of the office of bishop, but was persuaded by his friends 
not to do so. The General Conference, however, passed a resolution 
requesting him to undertake only such work as would be consistent 
with his impaired health. The bishop, nevertheless, insisted on his 
colleagues giving him a fair share of the work. From this period until 
1842 he continued to attend the Conferences in his regular turn, 
generally spending a portion of the winter in the South. In the 
early spring of 1842 he resolved to visit the Indian missions, in which 
he had taken a very deep interest. Taking a steamboat at Xew 
Albany, Indiana, he passed down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to 
Montgomery Point, thence by another steamer to Little Rock, 
Arkansas, and thence to Fort Smith, preaching by the way both 
at the Point and at Little Rock. After visiting the Cherokee Indians 
he was joined by Rev. E. R. Ames, Western Secretary of the Mission- 
ary Society, who had been visiting among the Choctaws. Thence 



184 Methodist Bishops. 

tiieY ^^sited the Seneca nation, and from thence went to the Shawnee 
mission, near the present city of TTyandotte. J^otwithstanding all the 
disagreeable incident^ of such a jonrney, such as camping out, fording 
difficult streams, breaking carriage and harness, etc., yet the bishop 
enjoyed the trip greatly. The Indians were in turn highly delighted 
to see and hear the venerable patriarch. Bishop Ames informs us, that 
one of them said, " It made my heart feel so warm to think a bishop 
would come to stay with me." Another, on seeing him, inquired who 
he was, and was answered that he was the grandfather of all the mis- 
sionaries. ""Well," said the Indian, looking at his fine countenance 
and gray hairs, '' he look like it." On this trip, stopping to warm at 
the fire where some Indians had camped, he found one reading a 
portion of the Xew Testament translated into the Delaware language. 
After visitino^ the mission amono^ the Shawnees and Delawares the 
bishop found himself compelled to abandon his contemplated trip to 
the Upper Mississippi, and returned homeward. 

At their previous session the Indiana Conference had requested 
the bishop to sit for his portrait. As a favorable op23ortunity oc- 
cuiTed, he was invited to visit Greencastle, where he spent some ten 
days, and the portrait was painted, which is now in the Indiana Asbury 
University. During that period the ^vi'iter persuaded him to give the 
incidents of his early life and ministry, which were written chiefly in 
his own words. It was also agreed that the next summer he would 
return and a full sketch of his life could be written. But, alas ! before 
the next summer came he was called to his reward. He continued to 
visit the Conferences as usual that fall, preaching during the year in 
six diiferent States and among four distinct Indian tribes. He pre- 
sided at four Annual Conferences, and traveled on horseback and in 
carriages, steamboats and stages, over iiye thousand miles. The 
winter which followed was unusually early and severe. An asthmatic 
complaint with which he had been afflicted increased in severity, and 
in December his nephew, of whom he had charge from his boyhood, 
and who had been to him as a son, was taken sick and died. The 
bishop was much depressed, but attended meetings in the vicinity, 
especially on the watch-night at the close of that year. The next day 
he preached a sermon which is described as one of melting tenderness 
and of thrilling eloquence, and closed by saying, " My work is ahnost 



Robert Eiciifokd Roberts. 185 

done. These trembling hands, these whitened locks, portend a speedy 
dissohition. I expect soon to fall ; bnt it concerns me little where or 
when 1 fall, so I but rest in the arms of my Saviour." He w^as so 
exhausted that he could scarcely assist in the communion service 
which followed. The follow^ing Sabbath he preached his last sermon, 
on " blessed are the pure in heart : for they shall see God." For a few 
wrecks he w^as able to walk about, but his asthma increased, and, taking 
a fresh cold, he sank into typhus fever. Those who were permitted 
to be with him testify to his strong faith and unw^avering confidence. 
The quiet calmness of his Christian life remained unbroken in the 
dying hour. His last expression to a visiting minister was, "I feel 
that if I die, I shall die in the Lord, and if I live, I shall live for the 
Lord." To his brother he said, " I want to be decently buried ; 
nothing more ; no pomp — no show. This poor tenement is worth 
notjiing more than a decent covering." He appeared to suifer but 
little pain until near his end. He retained his consciousness to the 
last, and just before he expired he raised his hands, as if in the act 
of offering himself to God, and in a few minutes ceased to breathe. 
Thus passed away one of earth's purest and noblest sons, at half past 
one o'clock on Sunday morning, March 26, 1848. He was interred 
temporarily on his own farm, but, at the request of the Indiana Con- 
ference, and with the consent of his widow, his remains were removed 
the following winter to Greencastle, where they were interred in the 
TJnivei*sity campus. The spot is marked by a neat monument. The 
hundreds of young men who issue from the University halls will, it 
is to be hoped, study the lessons of his life and emulate his purity 
and devotion. 

Bishop Roberts was a man of great benevolence of feeling, though 
he had but limited means, and he had relatives who were more or 
less dependent upon him. Bishop Morris tells us that in 1825-26 
Bishop Roberts visited 'New Orleans, where the brethren were en- 
deavoring to build a small frame chapel. To assist them he sold 
his horse for $100, and presented the amount to the trustees, taking 
his passage on a steamboat to Louisville. On the way the boat struck 
a snag, and the captain called for blankets to secure the breach. The 
bishop at once flung down both blanket and bed. The boat sunk, but 
the passengers were saved, and the cold, cheerless night was spent on 



186 Methodist Bishops. 

a desolate shore, l^ext day he shouldered his baggage and walked 
seven miles. There he bought a small pony and S23anish saddle, but 
the pony gave out under him, as he was quite corpulent. He suc- 
ceeded with difficulty in reaching ^Nashville, where he received aid to 
return home 

He also manifested his benevolence as well as his interest in 
literary institutions in his bequest to the Indiana Asbury University, 
making it his residuary legatee, though, unfortunately, owing to the 
failure of some friends, very little was realized. 

As a man Robert K. Roberts was true, noble, and generous ; as a 
Christian he was humble, self-denying, and consistent ; as a preacher 
he was clear, instructive, earnest, and oftentimes eloquent ; as a bishop 
he was faithful and diligent, loving his brethren much, the Church 
still more, and his Saviour and God supremely. May his mantle rest 
on those who survive him ! 







jLy 



Elijah Hedding 



BY REV. BRADFORD K. PEIRCE, D.D 



OUR personal memories of tliis model bishop, commencing in our 
boyhood, are of the pleasantest character. He was very fond 
of yonng people, always had a kindly word of welcome as he met 
them, was playful in their society, and never failed to win their warm- 
est regards. With all this familiarity he carried with him a gentle 
dignity, awakening the profonndest reverence of the children, upon 
whose heads he loved to permit his hands to rest in apostolic benedic- 
tions. In presence, he was of noble proportions ; in countenance, full 
of benignity ; in manner, a pattern of Christian simplicity ; in judg- 
ment, a man of rare insight and of marked wisdom and prudence; 
and as a preacher, calm, clear, comprehensive, and persuasive — always 
justifying the choice of his brethren in his elevation to the highest 
office in the Church. 

Elijah Hedding was born in the State of l^ew York, in Dutchess 
County, near what is now the town of Pine Plains, June Y, 1780. 
His family were of very reputable English origin. N^either of his 
parents were Church members, but his mother was a woman of deep 
religious convictions, devout in her habits, and faithful in instructing 
her son in the doctrines and duties of religion. In 1789 that 
wonderful Methodist evangelist Benjamin Abbott, whose works still 
follow him on the fields of his great sj)iritual victories, although he 
has long since rested from his labors, was stationed upon Dutchess 
Circuit, and enjoyed a sweeping work of grace in connection with 
his labors. Hedding was then a lad of nine or ten years of age. 
His mother, grandmother, and other relatives, were gathered into the 
Church during this revival, and he retained himself, ever after, the 
most hvely recollections of the remarkable scenes attending this 
work. 

In 1791 his parents removed to the town of Starksborough, Ver- 
mont, and he, in his youth, aided in the labors and suJSfered iu the 



190 Methodist Bishops. 

privations of frontier life ; the subjugation of a wild country, and the 
cultivation of a farm just snatched from the wilderness. His educa- 
tional opportunities must have been small. His mind, however, was 
very active ; he was fond of discussion ; he availed himself of all the 
scant privileges for mental imj^rovement that he could seize, and, 
being of a positive character, and very athletic, he became, as he 
ripened toward his early manhood, a leader among his companions in 
every respect. At the close of the war a general demoralization was 
witnessed throughout the country. Infidel books and theories were 
busily disseminated on all sides. These met the eye and reached the 
ear of young Hedding in the most perilous period of his life, and 
before he had experienced the saving power of the gospel But his 
conscience, developed and nurtured by a mother's faithfulness, held 
him in all these hours of fearful temptation. "My conscience," he 
says at this time, " bore aw^ful testimony, for it then was awful to 
me, that there is a God ; " and the Bible that his mother had read 
to him still seemed like God's voice speaking 'directly to his soul. 
Thus this great preacher bears the same testimony that thousands 
of others have given to the invincible power of early and faithful 
religious training. 

For several years after the Hedding family reached Starksborough 
there were no public religious services held -in the town ; but a Metli- 
odist family moved into the place about this time and opened Sabbath 
services in their house. Printed sermons w^ere read on these occa- 
sions, principally Wesley's. As young Hedding w^as a good reader, he 
was persuaded to fill this office, although his conduct at this time was 
such as rendered him, in his own estimation, a very unsuitable person 
for such a position. He became, however, somewhat interested in 
this duty. The devout and intelligent Methodist couple, who, doubt- 
less, saw great promise in him, made him a subject of prayer and 
constant instruction. They induced him to read their Wesleyan 
books ; so that he became remarkably well informed in Arminian the- 
ology, and familiar with the recorded personal experiences of eminent 
Wesleyans, before he yielded his own heart to the power of the 
gospel. 

In 1798 the Methodist itinerants made their appearance in this 
j^art of Yermont, and Joseph Mitchell, a flaming evangelist, opened 



Elijah HEDDmo. 191 

his commission in this region. His power over those frontier audi- 
ences was amazing. Wliere he held his meetings all secular business 
ceased. On one occasion, as related by Lorenzo Dow, after one of his 
overwhelming exhortations, for eleven hours there was no cessation to 
the loud cries and supplications of the audience, save when a shout of 
victory or song of triumph interrupted the prayers of penitents. 
Young Hedding resisted the subduing influences of these meetings 
for a long time. He was cool, thoughtful, and resolute. But his 
judgment had already been convinced, and his heart was powerfully 
moved. In a grove, by himself, in 1798, he says, " I solemnly made 
a dedication of myself to God. I laid my all — soul, body, goods, and 
all — for time and for eternity, upon the altar, and I have never (he says 
this after fifty years from this hour) never taken them back." It was 
a long and bitter struggle, however, with self, sin, and doubt, before 
he secured, as he finally did, an undoubted and glorious witness of the 
Holy Spirit to his adoption into the divine family. Such a positive 
and powerful experience was indispensable for the work that God had 
in store for his young disciple. December IT, 1798, his burden gone, 
his soul at rest, his heart full of the peace passing all understanding, 
he became a probationer in the Methodist Ej^iscopal Church. 

From a very early period after his conversion he seemed to have 
had an impression, w'hich he himself strenuously resisted, that he 
would be called to preach the gospel. He commenced the careful 
study of the Bible, was faithful in attendance upon all public and 
social religious services, and, in accordance with the custom of the 
period and the opportunities of the Church, was encouraged to exer- 
cise his gifts in prayer and exhortation. The circuit preacher, discern- 
ing his talents, at once secured his company and assistance in his 
appointments, and his own heart was greatly quickened as he saw 
the salvation of men following his word of exhortation and his tender 
prayers. 

In 1799 the eccentric but devoted Lorenzo Dow, being sent to 
Essex Circuit, which then embraced the whole tract of country lying 
between Lake Champlain and the Greeu Mountains, and from Onion 
Eiver some twenty or thirty miles into Canada, suddenly imagined he 
had a divine call to preach in Ireland, and immediately sailed for that 
country. Young Hedding, who had thus far simply exhorted on the 
12 



192 Methodist Bishops. 

Sabbatli without taking a text, was called upon by the elder in 
charge to enter npon this vacant field. With his characteristic 
modesty he hesitated, but when once convinced of his duty, he never 
again wavered. Under extraordinary embarrassments, with heroic 
endurance he preached the word with power, and revivals broke forth 
in every direction. In the enjoyment of a very rich and triumphant 
23ersonal experience, he continued to labor with good success, under 
the presiding elder, until June 16, 1801, when he was admitted on 
probation into the JSTew York Annual Conference, at its session held 
in the old John-street Church, under Bishop Whatcoat. 

Into such a work as this, w^ith a mind of more than average 
breadth, quickened into development by the active discussions upon 
Atheism, Deism, and Universalism vigorously going on around him 
during his youth, cultivated by a habit of reading, which he resolutely 
followed while riding his circuit ; thoroughly grounded in tlie views 
of Mr. Wesley ; an ardent student of the Bible ; a man six feet in 
height with a large frame and robust health ; an excellent singer ; and 
ha\dng a remarkably rich and powerful experience, he went out into 
the unsubdued northern portion of ^ew York and Yermont and the 
adjoining wilderness of Canada, to preach the gospel to a scattered, 
poor, but spiritually hungry people. His first circuit was the Platts- 
burgh, on the west side of Lake Champlain, requiring a journey of 
three hundred miles to compass it. 

Hedding soon showed himself to be a king among men. His 
intelligence, his prudence, his moral power and consecration attracted 
at once the notice of his ministerial brethren. He was not a brilliant 
preacher, was rather disposed to be controversial. His most powerful 
discourses were leveled against the high, antinomian Calvinism of 
the period, and against Universalism and Infidelity. He had, how- 
ever, the persuasive unction of a positive conviction, and the warmth, 
earnestness, and pathos of one full of the Holy Spirit. His audiences 
were often powerfully moved. His clear, calm, argumentative dis- 
courses eminently fitted him for the 'New England habit of mind, and 
made him early conspicuous in her ministerial ranks as a man of 
intellectual power and marked ability. 

At the session of his Conference in 1803, at Ashgrove, in the town 
of Cambridge, where repose the ashes of Embury, Hedding was 



Elijah Hedding. 193 

admitted into full connection, and ordained deacon by Bisliop What- 
coat. He was appointed to Bridgewater Circuit, lying nearly in tlie 
center of the State of New Hampshire. It was rough and hilly, 
requiring one hundred miles travel each week, two sermons on each 
week-day, and three on the Sabbath. Sweeping revivals broke out in 
every portion of the circuit, but the labor and exposure were too 
severe even for the iron constitution of the heroic itinerant. He was 
brought to death's door, and, hurrying too soon to his work upon 
a partial recovery, he had a terrible relapse, which, at first, threatened 
to leave him a cripple for life, and from the results of which he never 
fully recovered. This protracted sickness was a serious trial to his faith. 
His next appointment upon tlw Hanover Circuit gave him a little 
more time for study, and he commenced that thorough self -training in 
the rudiments and grammar of the English language which made him 
the exact scholar and logician that he was in after years. 

In the division that occurred in the New York Conference, in 
1805, Hedding fell into the New England branch, and attended the 
first Conference, in Lynn, July 12, 1805. About forty preachers were 
present at this Conference. It comprised 5 districts, 48 stations and 
circuits, 77 preachers in all, and 8,540 members. Only fifteen years 
had elapsed since Jesse Lee opened his mission in Eastern New En- 
gland, under Liberty Tree, on Boston Common. 

On Barre and Yershire Circuits, whither Hedding was successively 
sent, his labors were attended with encouraging success. He came at 
this time into frequent personal controversies with settled Calvinistic 
clergymen, winning for himself in these encounters ultimately the re- 
spect and even warm regard of his op)ponents ; not more by his quick 
wit, his knowledge of the holy Scriptures, and his keen logic, than by 
his agreeable temper and his Christian spirit. At the session of the 
Conference held in Boston, in 1807, he was made presiding elder of 
New Llampshire District, with eleven ministers under his care. The 
district at that time embraced nearly the whole State and a portion of 
Yermont, requiring to complete his rounds no less than three thousand 
miles of travel. A significant incident occurred about this time. 
It was during his first year in the enjoyment of his elevated ofiice 
that his salary, over his expenses, amounted to less than $5. Not far 
from the bounds of his district, on one side, resided an old associate 



194 Methodist Bishops. 

of his Yontli, and Hedding turned from liis ronte to see him. He 
was not a Christian. He had been greatly prospered in his temporal 
fortunes ; had a large, line farm, and every thing to minister to his 
comfort, ease, and taste. "I take great j^leasnre in thinking," he 
said, " that I shall leave, at least, one spot on the earth better than I 
found it." The amazing contrast between their earthly condition — 
the ease and affluence of the one, the poverty and toil of the other, and 
the probabilities in the future of them both — at first occasioned a little 
depression in the mind of Hedding. A few years before, his own 
worldly prospects had been equally as good as were those of his friend. 
But then he thought, " If he finds comfort in thinking that the world 
will be better for his having lived in it, how much greater source of 
happiness have I, who am devoting all my time and energies to doing 
good in the ^rorld." This thought removed all disquiet and filled his 
heart with peace. 

At the session of tJie Xew England Conference in 1809 he was 
appointed to the Xew London District, which embraced all the State 
of Connecticut east of the river of the same name, and all of Rhode 
Island west of ^arragansett Bay. During this year he held a camp- 
meeting at Hebron, the first enjoyed in that part of the country. 
The most remarkable results attended its services. On the fourth 
day the multitude was bowed under the power of the Holy Spirit, 
and within the space of five minutes four hundred persons were pros- 
trate and helpless upon the earth. Physicians came from the town, and 
passed among the crowds lying speechless, f eehng their pulses. All were 
amazed, and stood reverent, as in the iDresence of a mighty manifestation 
of divine power. The whole district was wrapped in a revival fiame. 

January 10, 1810, Mr. Hedding was married to Miss LucyBlish, of 
Gilsum, ]^. H. Her parents were attendants upon the Congregational 
Church, but at eighteen years of age, while visiting a married sister, 
on the west side of Lake Champlain, she heard for the first time a 
Methodist preacher. She was happily converted, returned to her 
home, and persuaded her parents to invite the Methodist preachers to 
the house.. The result was, they found themselves the "way of ]3eace, 
established regular preaching in the vicinity, and built up a Church. 
Mrs. Heddina: was a noble woman, of dignified and sweet presence, of 
much personal beauty, a consecrated woman, and fit companion for the 



Elijah Hedding. 195 

beloved linsband whose labors slie largely shared, and whose life she 
cheered down to its close — remaining out of heaven behind him but a 
very short period. Her dignified form, her benign countenance, her 
daily piety, and her good works, are still fresh in the minds of the 
older members of the Lymi Common Church, where they lived for 
many years, and of which she was an active member. 

At the Conference in 1811 Hedding Avas elected a co-delegate 
with G. Pickering to the first General Conference of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, the two receiving all the votes cast except their 
own. He was also appointed to Boston. It was during this year, 
while preaching in Bromfield-street, that E. T. Taylor, the great 
apostle to seamen, then a rough and ignorant sailor, heard him, and 
was touched to the heart. He came, when invited, to the altar, and 
cried aloud for mercy. The preacher, whom he never forgot, but 
ever loved as a child might love a father, and was in return loved with 
a fatherly affection, pointed him to his Saviour until he saw him by 
faith, and awaked to a newness of Hfe, and sprung eagerly forward 
in a wonderful career of usefulness. 

In the important debates of this first and seminal General Confer- 
ence, upon the " presiding elder question," and others, the calm, sound, 
clear reasoning of Hedding had great weight, and made for him, from 
that time, a conspicuous name in the whole Church. 

He filled in succession, after the close of his Boston pastorate, the 
pulpits of IN^antucket and Lynn, and in 1815 was stationed for the 
second time in Boston. His popularity in Boston, as a preacher, was 
at this time great. These years formed a very important era in the 
history of Methftdism in that city. His abilities commanded respect, 
persons from a higher social circle than heretofore, as in the instance 
of the niece of John Hancock, united with the Church. The serious 
financial troubles which threatened to overwhelm the Church were 
happily removed by his vigorous and prudent management. 'New 
preaching places were established in the adjoining towns, and the 
whole aspect of the denomination, in the very center of Congrega- 
tionalism, began to take on a more encouraging appearance. In 1818 
and 1819 he was stationed in Lynn ; in the latter year being again sent 
as a delegate to the General Conference. In 1820 he was the pastor 
of the Church in ]N"ew London, and in 1821 was made presiding elder 



196 Methodist Bishops. 

of Boston District. At the Conference in 1822, held in Bath, Me., he 
was once more returned to Boston as a pastor. He preached at this 
time his memorable Conference Sermon, which was published, by the 
request of his brethren, in the " Methodist Magazine." It was upon 
the divinity of Christ, and is an able and exhaustive Scripture argu- 
ment. His third pastorate in Boston was signalized by his active, per- 
sonal interest in the establisment of the first weekly religious paper 
originated and sustained by the denomination, the " Zion's Herald." 
The Conference of 1822 had appointed a committee for this purpose, 
under his inspiration, and he was placed upon it. " Wisdom is justified 
of her children." He laid, during this year, the corner-stone of the 
first East Cambridge Methodist Episcopal Church. Daniel Fillmore, 
of precious memory, greatly beloved and appreciated by Mr. Hedding, 
was his colleague at this time. The preachers alternated between 
Bromfield-street and Methodist Alley, and the crowd followed Hed- 
ding. Brother Fillmore used to tell, with great satisfaction, a back- 
handed compliment that he received at this time. Preaching one 
afternoon to a small audience in Bromfield-street, an old sister said 
to him, as he came down the pulpit stairs, "People run after Brother 
Hedding, but I don't ; Hike shallow fveachirC the hest! " 

At the Conference of 1823, for the fourth time, he was elected a 
delegate to the ensuing General Conference. In all these elections he 
never lacked more than two or three of the whole vote cast. 

This quadrennial Conference, which was held in the city of Balti- 
more, was a very important one. It discussed at length the Book Con- 
cern, the education of tlie children, Sunday-schools, slavery, lay delega- 
tion, and the inevitable presiding-elder question. Elijah Hedding, now 
a recognized power and authority in the Church, took a large share in 
its dehberations. At this Conference he was elected bishop. Against 
the nomination, (made by Pev. Enoch Mudge,) he remonstrated, and 
with tears urged many objections. When the election was declared, 
amid the rejoicings of friends, he was overwhelmed with a sense of 
unfitness for \\\q responsible place. He hesitated long before consent- 
ing to receive ordination. Weepingly he requested time to consider 
the subject, and to pray for divine direction. Immediately upon his 
leaving the church, Drs. Capers and Winans, who had widely differed 
with him in debate upon the questions before the General Conference, 



Elljati Hedding. 197 

introduced a resolution expressing the "unlimited confidence'' of the 
Conference " in the integrity and ministerial worth of (their) beloved 
brother, Elijah liedding," and affectionately requesting him " to sub- 
mit himself to the call of Providence and the Church." Mr. Heddinsr 

o 

was much moved by this unanimous opinion of his brethren. He 
returned to the church, and said that he must esteem this call of the 
Church as the voice of God, and would submit to their direction. 

Mr. Hedding was now forty-four years of age, in the prime of his 
intellectual powers, but in somewhat delicate physical health, arising 
from a long course of most exacting labors. There were now five 
bishops in the Church, (but M'Kendree was to feeble to render much 
aid,) and fifteen Annual Conferences. It might, at first view, seem a 
much less onerous service than the immense statistics of the Church 
now bring irpon only twice as many superintendents. But at this 
time there were no railroads, the work had not been systematized, 
and nearly the whole care of the Churches fell upon the shoulders 
of these devoted and tireless apostolic men. A journey from Lynn to 
Philadelphia in those days occupied a week. 

At his first Conference, in Barnard, Yermont, Eevs. A. D. Merri.l 
and A. D. Sargeant, still surviving, w^ere ordained in a grove near the 
old church. The Conference met him with a hearty and loving wel- 
come, requesting him and his family to locate within their bounds ; 
a request to which he cheerfully acceded. And they never ceased to 
love him. Even during the painful years of the antislavery contro- 
versy, although many of its members differed in judgment with him 
upon points of administration, they never lost their fraternal, and, on 
the part of the younger members, filial, love and reverence for him. 
In the height of the controversy he removed from his new England 
home. He was grieved at heart by what, at the time, seemed ungrate- 
ful to him, in the treatment he received at the hand of his former 
Conference. But this all passed away long before he died. Every 
thing was explained. Time and divine Providence rectified opinions 
and harmonized diverse judgments. The old, hearty, tender welcome 
was proffered, and his last days were brightened with these affectionate 
and sincere assurances from a body of brethren with whom he had 
been, for so many years, personally connected. 

It is not necessary to follow closely the steps of our venerated 



198 Methodist Bishops. 

subject during the score and a half of years that he filled the high 
commission which had been intrusted to his hands. He entered into 
common labore with his respected colleagues and their successors, and 
his words and acts, with theirs, have entered into the written and 
unwritten history of the Church. His episcopal life covers the most 
important era in her Iiistory. During liis period of office, and with 
his active personal supervision and counsels, every important interest 
of the Church has been considered, adjusted to the whole system, and 
given permanent form. The only point of the administration in 
which he suffered the criticism of his brethren, especially in 'New 
England, was upon the vexed antislavery question, in the height of 
one of the most violent controversies that ever convulsed a nation 
or a Church. He represented a great connectional interest, and was 
embarrassed by the practical operations of ecclesiastical measures in 
portions of the wide-spread denomination where long years of per- 
mitted existence, and the influence of education and public sentiment 
had perverted conscience, sanctified oppression, and warped the judg- 
ment of apparently devout Christian men ; while his New England 
brethren, fanned only by the free winds from the Atlantic, and unem- 
bai'rassed by selfish or social interests, only looked upon the absolute 
right or wrong of the question under discussion, and were imjDatient 
when an imminent human right was balanced, even temporarily, 
against a national or ecclesiastical question of expediency. In the 
sharpest hour of the struo;gle, when the great and irresistible move- 
ment seemed temporarily delayed ' by the hand of the favorite New 
England bishop, and unkind words were uttered in the heat of the 
moment, no one lost the slightest confidence in the probity or piety 
of the great and good man whose heart was rent by this struggle 
between a clear conviction of duty and sincere affection for his friends 
of many years, and by the painful relations, also, into which he was 
reluctantly thrust by the hurried movement of events. When the 
crisis came in the discussion precipitated upon the General Confer- 
ence of 1844 by the domestic embarrassments of Bishoj) Andrew, 
he .remained firm to the antislavery interpretation of the Discipline, 
and strengthened his brethren in a solemn act that immediately 
divided the Church, and ultimately threatened the nation, but re- 
sulted in the destruction of the direful cause itself of all the trouble. 



Elijah Hedding. 199 

During tliese years, as bisliop, lie was always progressive, grasping 
in his clear intelligence the great elements of growth, and the requisi- 
tions of the hour. Uuder his hand the course of ministerial study 
was extended. He was greatly interested in all the educational move- 
ments of the Church, from the conference academy — the value of 
which he fully appreciated — to the theological school wliicli enjoyed 
his final benedictions. The ecclesiastical law of the Church was 
expounded with remarkable clearness in his repeated and unques- 
tioned decisions. Her literature' . was a subject of his constant 
thought, and was enriched by the publication of his simple, evangel- 
ical, and impressive discourses. He was an admirable presiding 
officer, familiar with parliamentary law, quiet, good-natured, often 
humorous, but always holding his Conferences in hand. He was 
particularly impressive in the discharge of his episcopal duties ; his 
addresses to the young ministers were simple, fatherly, full of good 
sense, spiritual, and solemn. His sermons at Conferences were models 
of comprehensiveness ; they were eminently scriptural, experimental, 
and warmly enforced. His ordination services, especially in his later 
years, were peculiarly apostolic and affecting. He embodied in his 
person, and in his simple, sincere piety, the ideal of a Christian bishop. 

At the General Conference of 1848, which was held in the city 
of Pittsburgh, and which he opened by the reading of the Scriptures, 
his bodily infirmities had become so evident, that by formal resolution 
he was relieved from all episcopal and pastoral labor save that which 
he might voluntarily perform. He was desired to prepare for publi- 
cation his own biography, and his views upon the Methodist pastorate 
and the various grades of office in the Church. His rapidly failing 
health, however, forbade the execution of a request which would 
have given to the Church such an exposition of her economy as had 
never been made before, and which he would have been happy to 
have accomplished. 

The bishop, after this General Conference, leisurely visited several 
Annual Conferences, in connection with the younger and newly 
elected members of the episcopacy. 

At his home in Poughkeepsie, in the opening of 1851, he writes the 
touching reflections which form the closing pages of Bishop Clark's 
interesting biography. "I am now," he says, " beyond three-score and 



200 Methodist Bishops. 

ten ; mj strength to labor in the vineyard is gone ; I am daily looking 
forward to the hour when I must give an account of my stewardship ; 
but through tlie merit of Christ I look into eternity with hope and 
comfort.'' In the spring of 1851 the unmistakable signs of approach- 
ing dissolution were manifested, but the soul of the dying saint 
became more and more exultant. " His conversation during the last 
months and weeks of his life were heavenly and edifying in a higli 
degree." In the autumn of 1851, on the first Sabbath in ^November, 
he went to Church, entered the pulpit, and closed the service with 
prayer, or rather, praise. His broken and trembling voice labored to 
express his sense of the divine presence and grace. The entire 
audience was bathed in tears, while an expression of joy lingered 
upon his countenance as he feebly arose from his knees. Bishops 
and ministers of the Church visited him at this time to receive his 
final blessing, and to witness the grace with which he w^as enabled to 
triumph over great bodily weakness and pain. After partaking of the 
communion in his sick room, sitting in his chair, unable to kneel, as 
his limbs were so terribly swollen, he said, with a voice choked with 
emotion, " I am about to go hence. My body is going to the dust ; but 
I have a good hope that my soul will go to God in heaven. I am a 
poor, weak, wretched creature ; have many imperfections and many 
sins ; but I hope for, and expect to receive, salvation through our 
Loi'd Jesus Christ." He then referred to his fifty years of active 
service, to the blessed results of these labors, to the triumphant deaths 
he had witnessed ; and he exhorted the ministers present " to preach 
Christ and call lost sinners to the Saviour." He continued until his 
strength utterly failed, and his wdfc, overwhelmed by emotion, en- 
treated him to spare himself. On the 31st of March, in an hour of 
great feebleness, he had a remarkable experience. "I have served 
God," he said, "' for more than fifty years ; I have generally had 
peace ; but I never saw such glory before — such light, such clearness, 
such beauty ! O, I w^ant to tell it to all the w^orld ! " His last words 
were, " My God is my best friend, and I trust him wdth all my 
heart." Pausing for breath, he added, " ' Because I live, ye shall live 
also.' What a promise ! " Then his speech failed, and his life ebbed 
away until "he was not, for God took him." He died, April 9, 1852. 




Eneravedty J.B.Longacre from a Paintine by J. Jackson R-i^L taken inEngla] 



EISHOP OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



John Emory. 



BY KEY. WM. LAKEABEE. 



THE career of Bishop Emoiy was an important one in its relation 
to tlie Methodist Episcopal Church. His term of active life was 
short ; jet he exerted a degree of influence in shaping the thought 
and polity of the Church, and advancing its interests, that has been 
equaled by few men in Methodism. He was fitted by nature and 
education for the work he did. His family and social connections 
were of the best. His literary and professional training was liberal 
according to the standards of his time and of the place of his nativity, 
and was supplemented by extensive after-studies. He had risen to 
a successful practice of the law, and was enjoying a bright promise of 
wealth and reputation in the future, when he gave up all to enter the 
service of the Church. He carried with him the original and ac- 
quired advantages of his position, with the personal gifts of practical 
acquaintance with life and business, strong logical power, clear judg- 
ment, habits of accuracy, thoroughness, systematic industry, and 
entire devotion to whatever work he might be engaged in, and 
turned them all to the use and advantage of Methodism. He labored 
wdth effect to meet the wants of the Church in his time, and his 
agency was conspicuous in the preparation of measures to increase 
the breadth and permanence of its work, to extend and improve its 
system of education, and particularly to provide more adequately for 
the publication and circulation of its literature. 

John Emory was born at Spaniard's ISTeck, Queen Anne County, 
Eastern Shore of Maryland, April 11, 1Y89. His father, "a man of 
great industry, probity, liberality, and firmness of ]3urpGse," was a 
class-leader in the Methodist Episcopal Church ; w^as at different times 
an Associate Justice of the County Court, Justice of the Peace, and 
Justice of the Orphans' Court ; and was often sought in counsel 
by his neighbors and made arbitrator in their difficulties. His mother 
had been brought up in the Protestant Episcopal Church. She was 



204 Methodist Bishops. 

converted under tlie preaching of Garrettson and his fellow-laborers, 
and joined the Methodist Episcopal Chnrch shortly after her mar- 
riage. " It was her custom," says the Rev. Dr. Kobert Emory, in his 
biography of the bishop, "when company came to the house, to take 
the female visitors into a private room, not to interchange the gossip 
of the neighborhood but to unite in prayer ; and whenever her image 
is recalled by the writer of these pages, it is either in the attitude of 
prayer, or with the Bible on her lap." Her piety was made attractive 
by a uniformly cheerful spirit. The house of the Emorys was a hos- 
pitable home to the preachers of the circuit, '' to whose company and 
conversation," the bishop says, in an autobiograj^hical sketch he wrote, 
"I was consequently accustomed from my infancy." It was the 
custom of the family to attend the religious meetings of the circuit 
together. All of the children were converted at these meetings 
except two, who were converted at family prayers. John first made 
a profession of religion while at school, at Easton, when he was be- 
tween ten and thirteen years of age. He never had any doubt of its 
sincerity. But, as he has recorded, he became discouraged shortly 
afterward in consequence of having yielded to the temptation to 
climb a tree to view a distant horse-race, and gave up his profession. 
He received the full experience of saving grace at a quarterly meet- 
iug held at Hoe's Cross Boads, in August, 1806. From this time his 
piety never flagged, but he exhibited a zeal and earnestness in the 
advancement of religion which seemed to increase steadily with his 
growing years, and at length determined the course of his after life. 

Mr. Emory's father having designed him for the law, John was 
placed under classical instruction before he w^as ten years old. His 
academical education was completed at Washington College, Mary- 
land. In the spring of 1805 he became a law student in the office of 
Bichard Tilghman Earle, of Centerville. He already began to ex- 
hibit that methodical diligence and power of concentration which 
became distinguishing traits with him. He rose early, conscientiously 
devoted every moment to some duty, habitually studied till he 
induced a pressure in his chest — and studied on. He accustomed 
himself to investigate to the bottom all questions which engaged his 
attention, and to take comprehensive but not voluminous notes of all 
he read. He was admitted to the bar on the first of July, 1808, two 



John Emory. 205 

years before lie reached his majority. A prosj^erous business opened 
fast before him. In a little more than a year he had, according to 
one of his contemporaries, Kensey Harrison, Esq., of Center ville, 
gained a " good practice for a young man, and had every j)rospect 
before him of acquiring wealtli and fame," and had, according to 
another, given promise "without a shadow of doubt" of attaining 
" a most conspicuous eminence," when he received and obeyed the 
call to the ministry. At this time, says Dr. Stevens, in his " History 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church," hardly any young man in his 
native State had more flattering prospects." 

Mr. Emory has himself recorded that his mother at his birth made 
a solemn dedication of him to Grod, earnestly ]3raying. and desiring that 
he might be called to the ministry, and that she had always been 
impressed with^ the conviction that her petition would be granted. 
Her husband had never sympathized with her desires, but had ap- 
pointed his son, when still very young, to a different profession, and 
had educated him with reference to it. He now resolutely ojDposed 
John's determination to change his work. Even after it had become 
fully carried out, and John had actually become a traveling preacher, 
whose efforts had been attended with blessings, he would not be recon- 
ciled to the change. He refused to hear his son j)reach, and would 
not write to him, or suffer himself to be written to by him. Under 
these circumstances the resolution to devote himself to the ministry 
cost Mr. Emory a struggle, the pain of which is probably only faintly 
depicted in his journal. In this he wrote : " It was on the ninth of 
October, 1809, that I made a covenant on my knees, w^rote and signed 
it, to give up the law, after much reading, prayer, and meditation, 
and on the tenth I did so, though my father was very unwilling." In 
a letter to the Kev. James Bateman, I^ovember 2, he wrote: "The 
moment I entered into this covenant, I felt my mind relieved, and 
the peace and love of God to flow through my soul, though I had 
before lost almost all the comforts of religion." 

Mr. Emory had become a class-leader and exhorter shortly after 
he was oonverted, and had afterward been licensed as a local preacher. 
While still a law-student he was accustomed to preach often in the 
town where he resided and in the surrounding country. He held 
a very modest view of his qualifications for this ofiice, and was often 



203 Methodist Bishops. 

seen, it was said bj one wlio used to hear him, melted into tears from 
a sense of his " inability and unfitness." His efforts were, however, 
highly apprecia^ted by his hearers, and bore good fruit. 

He joined the Philadelphia Conference in 1810, and was appointed 
to the Caroline Circuit, Maryland. His next appointment was upon 
the Cambridge Circuit, Maryland. Here he was associated with the 
Eev. George Sheets, who afterward became a Protestant Episcopal 
minister. This gentleman wrote, several years afterward, of Mr. 
Emory's qualities as manifested in this charge, and of the imipression 
they made upon him. "He never lost sight of the dignity and 
sanctity of the Christian and ministerial character. . . There was one 
great and all-absorbing object which he had constantly in view — the 
attaining of all that knowledge which was best calculated to qualify 
for a faithful and useful discharge of ministerial duty." Of his 
preaching, Mr. Sheets said : " There was no effort to secure the ap- 
13lause of men ; no beautiful tropes and figures ; no rhetorical flourishes ; 
no theatrical gestures and airs, to secure the plaudits of the vain and 
gay. But there was, in rich abundance, the purest milk of the word 
for babes, and also the strongest meat for those of full age." On 
another point, Mr. Sheets remarked : " Although it was only his sec- 
ond year in the ministry, I soon found that, in intricate cases, as it 
regarded the execution of discipline, I had in him an assistant whose 
mind was matured far beyond his years, and with whom I could take 
counsel with the greatest advantage and safety." 

At the Conference of 1812 Bishop Asbury called for volunteers 
to go to Montreal and Quebec. Mr. Emory authorized his presiding 
elder to place his name at the bishop's disposal ; but the presiding 
elder omitted to do so, and advised him not to go. On the next day 
volunteers were asked for to go West ; Mr. Emory handed the bishop 
a letter, offering to go anywhere within the territories of our govern- 
ment, if it was thought proper to send him. 

During this Conference year Mr. Emory was called upon to part 
with his father. The old gentleman had gradually become recon- 
ciled to his son's new plan of life. The first sign of his yielding 
was manifested in the grant of permission to take a horse from home 
for use in circuit duty. Mr. Emory wrote in his diary, April 12, 1812 : 
" I had a free conversation wdth my father, with abundance of tears. 



John E.Aior.Y. 207 

He acknowledged that lie prayed for me every day, and still loved me 
as a child, permitted me to write to him (which he had not done before, 
though I had written, notwithstanding,) and confirmed to me the gift 
of a horse, but declared himself of his first opinion as to my traveling. 
. . . To-day he heard me preach for the first time since 1 have been 
traveling." The w^ork of reconciliation was completed with the 
approach of death to the father. Mr. Emory was called home ; had 
the gratification of seeing his dying father look to him to minister to 
his comfort, and the consolation " to receive from his lips the last 
triumphant assurance of his undoubting expectation of eternal life." 

Mr. Emory ministered at the Academy, or Union Station, Philadel- 
phia, in 1813 and 1814. During the latter year he w^as engaged in a 
correspondence with the African Bethel Church in the same city, 
which proved lo be a forerunner of the organization of the African 
Methodist Episcopal Church. By the terms of its charter, the Bethel 
Church was to remain under the disciplinary regulations of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church and the jurisdiction of a white elder 
appointed by the Philadelphia Conference. Contentions arose re- 
specting the relations of the Church to the Conference, the case was 
taken to the courts, and the Church assumed an independent position. 
Mr. Emory wrote a circular letter to the ofiicers and members of the 
Church, deprecating the attitude they had assumed, and admonishing 
them that if they wished to continue connected with the Methodist 
Episcopal Church they must be connected according to its Discipline, 
must receive its preachers, and fulfill the obligations of the charter of 
their Church. On these conditions "we are ready," he said, ''still 
to serve you. We leave it entirely with yourselves to determine 
whether you will be connected witli us according to our Discipline ; but 
you cannot be connected with us in any other way." Dr. Stevens justly 
describes this document as " temperate and kindly," and as being a 
simple statement of facts ; and it does not in any way justify the asser- 
tion in the preface to the Discipline of the African Methodist Episco- 
pal Church, that in it the Africans were " disowned " by the Methfodists. 

Mr. Emory was elected a delegate to the General Conference of 
1816. It was the first General Conference to which he was eligible. 
Of the part he took in this body, it is mentioned only that the report 
on local preachers was in his hand-writing, and that he advocated the 



208 Methodist Bishops. 

election of presiding elders. In 1818 lie was stationed at tlie 
Foundry Clmrcli, Washington, D. C, and became a member of the 
Baltimore Conference. He was made a corresponding secretary for 
tlie. Conference of the newly formed Missionary and Bible Society ; 
and was cliosen a delegate to the General Conference of 1820. He 
took an active part in tlie most important proceedings of this body, 
and greatly commended himself by his readiness and efficiency. He 
was a member of the Committee on Episcopacy, and was one of the 
committee selected from the advocates of both sides of the con- 
troversy on the election of presiding elders, to whom was given 
the dnty of preparing a plan for the adjustment of differences. He 
interested himself in the cause of missions, and the favorable report 
which was adopted on that subject is believed to have been written 
by him. He moved the resolution by virtue of wdiich a book of 
tunes adapted to the Methodist hymns was published. 

The General Conference having directed a delegate to be sent to the 
British Conference to endeavor to settle some perplexing questions 
which had arisen between the American and English Methodists, the 
bishops appointed Mr. Emory. His mission w^as an extremely delicate 
one. In the presence of international difficulties fraternal intercourse 
between the Methodists of the two countries had been suspended for 
several years. A dispute had arisen in reference to the Churches in 
Canada. The work of the American ministers in Canada begun in 1T91, 
and steadily continued up to this time, had been much blessed, and pros- 
perous Churches had been built up under it. The work of the British 
ministers was begun several years later in Lower Canada, and had been 
gradually extended toward the fields occupied by the Americans. 
Conflicts of interest soon arose, and were made more unpleasant, 
perhaps, by political differences. A church in Montreal, which had 
been built chiefly with money collected in the United States, but with 
the help, in a small part, of English contributions, was taken posses- 
sion of by the English ministers. Bishop Asbury complained of the 
aggression in a letter to Mr. Benson, written in January, 1816. A 
proposition was made to the General Conference in the same year, 
in behalf of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, for a division of the 
work of the two bodies by the line which separated Upper and Lower 
Canada. The General Conference declined to give up any of its 



John Emoey. 209 

societies or chapels in tlie provinces. By its direction, Mr. Emory 
addressed a temperate and friendly letter to the Wesleyan Missionary 
Society, setting forth in full the American view of the case. The British 
Conference determined to strengthen its missions, while it advised 
the ministers to avoid disputes, and consented to give np the chapel 
in Montreal. The difficulties between the missionaries continued, 
nevertheless, till it was at length determined by the General Confer- 
ence to send a delegate to England, properly empowered, to try to 
effect an harmonious and permanent settlement. Mr. Emory was 
instructed : 1. To ascertain the views of the British Conference upon 
the expediency of an interchange of fraternal delegates once in four 
years. 2. To endeavor by prudent and practical means, to adjust the 
difficulties in Canada. 3. To propose to draw a specific hne between 
the American and British fields of labor. 

His mission was fully successful. At a free conference with the 
Wesleyan missionary committee he corrected many erroneous impres- 
sions which he found to be existing, and convinced them that the 
view held by the American Church was a just one, and ought to be 
so recognized by the Conference. His proposition for a settlement 
was agreed to by the committee, and accepted by the Conference. 
The boundary line between the Upper and Lower provinces was 
made the dividing line between the work of the two connections, 
except as to Montreal, where both were to continue their ministra- 
tions, the Americans keeping the chapel. In closing its action on 
the subject, the British Conference adopted a resolution declaring 
that it embraced " with pleasure the opportunity of recognizing that 
principle, which, it is hoj)ed, will be permanently maintained, that 
the Wesleyan Methodists are one body in every part of the world." 
The regular exchange of delegates every four years was renewed. 

When it became desirable, in 1828, for the American Churches in 
Canada to separate from the General Conference, a constitutional 
difficulty was interposed, the committee to whom the subject was 
referred by the General Conference reporting that by the terms of 
the compact by which it existed, it was the duty of the General Con- 
ference to preserve the Church entire, and not to sanction a division 
of it. Mr. Emory solved the difficulty by suggesting that the mis- 
sionaries to Canada had gone out, not by appointment, but as volun- 
13 



210 Methodist Bishops. 

teers ; and that, therefore, tlie bond between tliem and the Clmrcli in 
the United States was not of constitntional obligation, bnt was of 
such a character that it could be dissolved at any time by mntual 
consent. 

A proposition for the election of presiding elders by the Annual 
Conferences was actively discussed in the General Conference of 
1820. The subject was first introduced in the General Conference of 
1808, and was supported by a strong vote. Mr. Emory offered a reso- 
lution in its favor in the General Conference of 1816. The prospect 
seemed very favorable at this session for carrying the measure. Some 
of the bishops approved it. It being desirous to harmonize conflicting 
views as far as possible, a '' committee of conciliation " was appointed 
consisting of six members, three from .each side. The committee was 
composed of Ezekiel Cooper, Joshua Wells, S. G. Eoszel, N". Bangs, 
W. Capers, and Mr. Emory. They reported the so-called " suspended 
resolutions." These resolutions provided that the presiding bishop at 
each Annual Conference should nominate three times the number of 
persons wanted to fill vacancies in the office of presiding elder, from 
whom the Conference should elect by ballot, one at a time, the number 
wanted. The power to fill vacancies occurring during the intervals 
between the sessions of the Conference was reserved to the bishops. 
The presiding elders were made an advisory coimcil to the bishops in 
the stationing of preachers. The resolutions as reported by the com- 
mittee were passed by a majority of more than two thirds of the 
General Conference. Shortly after they were passed, the Conference 
were informed that Joshua Soule, who had been elected bishop, con- 
sidered them unconstitutional, and was determined, if ordained, not to 
carry them into execution, and that he was supported in his position 
by Bishop M'Kendree. Thereupon the resolutions were suspended 
for four years. During this interval the majority of the Annual 
Conferences declared against them. The suspension was continued at 
the General Conference of 1824, and the resolutions were at length 
rescinded in 1828. Mr. Soule declined the election of bishop in 1820, 
but was chosen again, and ordained, in 1824. 

Mr. Emory had taken a foremost part in advocacy of the principle 
of electing presiding elders, and had helped to frame, and supported, 
the " suspended resolutions." His Conference differed with him on 



John Emoey. 211 

this subject. For tliis reason he was not returned to the General 
Conference of 1824. Tie was, however, appointed secretary of that 
body. On the election of bishops he received fifty-nine votes, or 
within six votes of enough to elect him ; but after the second ballot, 
declined to be a candidate. Afterward, Dr. Bangs having been chosen 
principal Book Agent, Mr. Emory was selected as Assistant Agent. 
In 1828 he was made Agent, and Beverly Waugh, afterward Bishop 
IVaugh, Assistant Agent. Mr. Emory's inost distinguished services 
to the Church were given in his connection with the Book Concern. 
He introduced improvements in its methods of doing business by 
which its power for usefulness was largely promoted, and organized 
liberal plans for the extension of its operations. He may be fairly 
said to have had the principal part in laying the foundations for the 
prosperity and prominent position among publishing houses which it 
has since attained. When he first went into the Concern his health 
was poor, and his constitution had been damaged by hard work. He 
devoted himself to such duties as he could perform, and they were, 
fortunately, of a kind that could be made to contribute indirectly to his 
restoration. He visited the Conferences in the interest of the business. 
He entered fully into the plan which the Agents had been considering 
for the consolidation of the several organs of the Church into one 
central paper. In 1827 he purchased the ''Zion's Herald," and 
merged it in the " Christian Advocate." Some years afterward, how- 
ever, other parties commenced a new publication under the same 
name. 

Having made himself acquainted with the business arrangements 
of the Concern, he was prepared before the close of his first term to 
make suggestions for their improvement. Hitherto the sale of books 
had been conducted, and accounts kept, in a complicated commission 
system. The books were sent out to the districts, and charged to the 
presiding elders. They were then distributed to the preachers on the 
circuits, to be sold by them. The preachers accounted to the presiding 
elders, paying or giving notes for the books they had sold, and giving 
account of those which remained unsold. Thus, a large amount of 
stock was scattered through the country with at least a very uncertain 
security for its being safely kept, or adecpateiy accounted for. As 
the preachers and presiding elders were changed frequently, the stocks 



212 Methodist Bishops. 

and acconnts had to be transferred very often, and a certain degree of 
confusion was inevitable. A continual source of expense existed in the 
necessity of keeping a large amount of capital invested in the books 
thus scattered. Interest had to be paid upon the value of the stock, 
while none was expected from the preachers ; and the risk of loss in 
many ways was great. A more defective way of doing business could 
hardly be imagined. Mr. Emory said of the operation of the system, 
in his report to the G-eneral Conference of 1832, that it was demon- 
strable that under it " the Concern might have been ruined, and the 
connection greatly embarrassed, notwithstanding the show of a large 
annual increase of stock, since there was, with the large apparent 
increase of stock, also a real increase of debt, but not of dividends, nor 
could there have been any real profit." He suggested that a system 
of actual sales for cash or notes be substituted for this cumbrous 
method. The senior Agent approved his plan, and the General Con- 
ference of 1828 sanctioned it. Steps were taken for the sale of unpro- 
ductive stock and the collection of outstanding debts, and the allow- 
ances in making up the estimates of discounts on stock, debts, etc., and 
for contingent losses, were increased. The success of these measures 
was reported in 1832 to have not only equaled, but even exceeded, the 
most sanguine expectations. Bishop Waugh, the assistant Agent 
during the last four years of Mr. Emory's term, declared several years 
afterward that the ability, skill, diligence, and perseverance which he 
displayed in the measures devised by him to extinguish the debts of 
the Concern, and effect a sale of the stock on hand, had " seldom been 
equaled, and perhaps never surpassed, by the most practiced business 
man." At the time Mr. Emory went into the Concern it was indebted, 
according to Bishop Waugh, upward of one hundred thousand dollars, 
more than two thirds of which sum was for borrowed capital. At the 
close of his administration, in 1832, the annual dividends of the Con- 
cern had been greatly enlarged to an increased number of Conferences ; 
ground had been bought, and buildings put up suited to the wants of 
the growing business, and the Agent was able to report the property 
and business quite free from debt. The net value of the capital and 
stock had grown from $221,459 Y8 in 1824 to $438,017 32 in 1832. 

The duties of the book agent at this time were combined 
with those of editor of the books and of the '^ Methodist Magazine." 



John Emory. 213 

Dr. Emoiy, as editor, prepared a complete edition of Wesley's 
works, and several other valuable books. He changed the magazine 
from a monthly to a quarterly publication, enlarged the amount of 
original matter, and contributed much of it himself, and may justly 
be regarded as the founder of the " Methodist Quarterly Review." 
The Charch was at this period suffering under the excitement of tlie 
so-called " radical controversy," and was also the object of frequent 
hostile attacks from without. It seemed the clear duty of its official 
organs to maintain and defend its doctrines and the peculiar features 
of its polity as they were then generally understood. Consequently 
the " Magazine and Review " was forced to assume a controversial 
position, an attitude which was little to Dr. Emory's taste. Never- 
theless, having taken his stand, he maintained it with signal ability 
and cleverness. His arguments were advanced with a clearness and 
directness which gave them great force, and often made them severe, 
but always in good temper and legitimately. 

Dr. Emory opposed from its beginning the " reform " movement 
in favor of lay delegation, wdiich resulted eventually in the with- 
drawal of a number of ministers and members from the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. He wrote the report which was adopted by the 
General Conference of 1816, adverse to the application of the local 
preachers to be represented in that body. The prominent part which 
he afterward took in favor of the election of presiding elders led 
many at one time to believe that he sympathized for a time with the 
efforts of the reformers to effect other changes in the economy of 
the Church, but this has been proved to have been a mistake. 
Alexander M'Caine having written, in 1827, " The History and Mys- 
tery of Methodist Episcopacy " — a bitter attack on the institutions of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church — Dr. Emory replied, to it in the 
"Defense of our Fathers, and of the Original Organization of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church." It was a work of great ability, and 
exerted a powerful influence in favor of the principles it sought to 
sustain. The Baltimore Conference in 1828 gave its author a vote of 
thanks for having produced it. Mr. M'Caine replied several months 
afterward with "A Defense of the Truth, as set forth in ^ The His- 
tory and Mystery of the Methodist Episcopacy,' " and Dr. Emory 
replied to this work in several forcible articles in the " Methodist 



214 Methodist Bishops. 

Magazine and Quarterly Review." ]N'umerous petitions were pre- 
sented to tlie General Conference of 1828, asking for lay repre- 
sentation, the representation of local preachers, and the particular 
changes in the rules of the Church which were sought by the 
" reform " party. Dr. Emory was chairman of the committee to 
whom they were referred, whose report was adopted without a 
dissenting voice. He introduced the resolutions providing condition- 
ally for the restoration to membership of those persons who had been 
expelled from the Church in consequence of their acts in the radical 
controversy, which were adopted by the Conference. It was hoped 
that they would heal the breach which had been made. The motions 
to adopt the report and the resolutions were made by the Eev. Asa 
Shinn, one of the reform party. He afterward published a reply to 
the report. This gave Dr. Emory an opportunity to publish in the 
"Methodist Magazine and Quarterly Review" an article fully re- 
viewing the questions at issue. This article, and the report adopted 
by the General Conference, were regarded as constituting a complete 
vindication of the policy of the Church on the questions in dispute, 
as it was understood and carried out at the time. ISTow, since the 
bitterness of the controversy has long ago passed away, and lay 
delegation has been peacefully carried into effect, it is difficult to 
comprehend the intensity of the excitement which then prevailed in 
the Church, or to see matters as the overwhelming majority of min- 
isters and members viewed them. It is certain, however, that Dr. 
Emory faithfully represented the spirit and opinion of the Church. 

Dr. Emory was elected bishop at the General Conference of 1832. 
Though the prospect of his elevation to this office had been much 
spoken of, and he had been voted for several times, he had never 
conversed about it, it is said, even with members of his family. The 
modesty and grace with which he announced his election to his wife 
can hardly be surpassed. He wrote to her, the day after he was 
ordained : " The General Conference having determined to constitute 
two additional bisho^^s at this session, the election took place on 
Tuesday last, and resulted in the choice of the Rev. James O. 
Andrew, of Georgia, and your husband. Perhaps, from the oc- 
casional intimations of partial friends, your mind may have been in 
some measure prepared for this, and I trust the trial to you wiU not, 



John Emory. 215 

consequently, be so great as it might otherwise have been. The office 
is, indeed, a high and holy one, and I trust I am not wanting in 
a becoming sensibility of its great responsibility and weight. If you 
partake, as you cannot but do, in a sense of the obligation I am 
under for so distinguished a mark of the favor and confidence 
of ray brethren assembled in General Conference from all parts 
of our wide-spread charge throughout the United States, I hope I 
may receive not only your consent and approbation for the fulfillment 
of their wishes, but your self-denying and pious counsels and prayers 
to assist and encourage me under so great and heavy a burden. 
Indeed, I must inform you, that, anticipating your kind and holy 
self-devotion in a cause of such importance, and under such a call of 
the Lord and Master of us all, as I humbly trust, I have already 
submitted to take upon me at the holy altar the solemn vows of 
oflice in the midst of many prayers and supplications. The consecra- 
tion took place yesterday, in the Academy, (Union Church,) in the 
presence of the General Conference, and of a crowded audience, after 
a sermon by Bishop M'Kendree, designed both for a funeral sermon 
in memory of Bishop George, and for an ordination sermon. The 
rite of ordination w^as performed by the laying on of the hands of 
the four bishops, M'Kendree, Koberts, Soule, and Hedding, and of 
Thomas Ware and Ezekiel Cooper, the two latter being the oldest 
elders present." 

The newly elected bishop presided at the closing night session 
of the same General Conference, under circumstances which might 
have tried the most experiencd parliamentarians. He promptly re- 
pressed the confusion which arose, as it always does at such times, and 
secured a methodical and satisfactory transaction of the business 
remaining to be adjusted. 

Having settled his family in Baltimore, he started in July, 1832, 
on his first episcopal tour to the Pittsburgh, Ohio, Kentucky, and 
Holston Conferences, from which he did not return till December. 
During this journey he visited the mission to the Wyandotte Indians, 
at Little Sandusky, Ohio, and held a Conference with the Indian 
exhorters and leaders in the interests of the work. His report of this 
interview to the Secretary of the Missionary Society has been pre- 
served in the biography which was prepared by the Eev. Dr. Kobert 



216 Methodist Bishops. 

Emory and published by tlie Book Concern. In the spring of 1833 
he assisted Bishop Hedding at the Yirginia, Baltimore, and Phila- 
delphia Conferences. His second episcopal tour, which was begun 
in September of the same year, embraced the extreme Southern 
Conferences, called for about three thousand miles of travel, most of 
which was done on horseback, and occupied about six months. In 
1835 he attended the Yirginia, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Xew York, 
]N"ew England, Maine, ^ew Hampshire, and Troy Conferences. The 
antislavery excitement was high at this time, and a very strong 
feeling on the subject was found to be prevailing among the ministers 
of the New England and the 'New Hampshire Conferences. Bishops 
Emory and Hedding together addressed a letter of warning to the 
ministers, in which they represented that the agitation was only likely 
to disturb the country and the Church, without resulting in any 
practical good. They made their own position on the question clear 
by saying, " That the New Testament Scrij)tures, or the preaching 
or practice of our Lord and his apostles, were ever . intended lo 
justify the condition of slavery we do not believe. Yet we are as 
well satisfied that the present course of immediate abolitionists is 
equally foreign from the practical examples furnished by those high 
and sacred authorities, and in circumstances less difficult than ours." 
The views embodied in their letter agree with those which were 
entertained at the time by the Church and the American people at 
large. 

Yery soon after he entered upon the episcopal office Bishop 
Emory began to devise and urge plans to secure and maintain 
uniformity in general administration, and to improve and extend 
the course of education for ministers. Eor the former purpose he 
suggested to the bishops that they should keep a record of all the 
decisions they might make ; that they should communicate them to 
each other ; and endeavor to arrive at some common understanding on 
those points on which different rulings might have been made ; and 
that they should meet ]3eriodically to settle all points remaining 
unsettled, and to agree upon recommendations to be made in the 
future. His plan also contemplated records to be kept by the 
presiding elders of their decisions ; and a system of consultations 
under which preachers could refer questions of difficulty or doubt 



Joins' Emory. 217 

to the presiding elders, and the presiding elders refer them to the 
bishopSo 

The course of study for ministers, whicli had been prepared in ac- 
cordance with the recommendation of the General Conference of 1816, 
was confessedly defective. It virtually ended with the second year. 
The method of examination which had been pursued in connection 
with it seems to have been ill-adapted to test the knowledge of the 
student, or to insure thoroughness. Bishop Emory, with the co- 
operation of Bishop Tledding, prepared a schedule for an improved 
course, which was adopted by the Philadelphia Conference in 1833. 
It was afterward adopted by several of the Southern Conferences, 
and was so divided as to extend over the entire four years of prepara- 
tion for entrance into full connection^ and was thus made to apply to 
candidates for elder's as well as for deacon's orders. A more adequate 
method of conducting the examinations of candidates was also intro- 
duced. These changes were at length generally accepted by the 
Annual Conferences, and Bishop Emory's plan, receiving the approval 
of the G-eneral Conference, became the foundation of the present 
liberal course of study, to wdiich the great advance since made by the 
Methodist ministry in culture may be largely traced. 

Bishop Emory interested himself actively in the cause of general 
education. He was prominent in advancing the enterprises which 
were undertaken in his time for establishino^ schools of the higher 
order, particularly within the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was 
one of the Committee appointed by the ISTew York Conference 
to superintend the organization of tlie Wesleyan University. He 
took part in a convention of literary men which met in 'New York 
City, in 1830, to consider the subject of establishing a large university 
there, and was a mxcmber of the standing committee of the proposed 
institution. In 1833 he assisted the joint committee of the Baltimore 
and Philadelphia Conferences in arranging the transfer of Dickinson 
College to the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was for a long time 
president of the board of trustees of this institution. He fully dis- 
cussed the subject of the higher education in an article which he 
wrote for the "Methodist Magazine and Quarterly Beview," in 1831. 
He considered in this paper the details of the organization of schools, 
and the relative importance that should be attached to each branch 



218 Methodist Bishops. 

of study. The article might have been accepted as a draft of a com- 
plete and comprehensive system of instruction. While he awarded 
a just measure of appreciation to the classical studies, it is especially 
worthy of remark that the views he expressed as to the degree of 
importance and honor which should be attached to the sciences and 
modern literature were in close agreement with those advanced by the 
advocates of a more general scientific culture, and in accordance with 
which the courses of many colleges are undergoing the process of 
remodeling. There v/as found among his papers after his death the 
draft of a General Education Society of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, the object of which was to be to help youth in the Church — 
both those contemplating the ministry and others — in obtaining a use- 
ful and liberal education. The idea embodied in this sketch has since 
been carried out, in principle, in the Board of Education, of which the 
Rev. Dr. E. O. Haven is secretary. 

Bishop Emory's services in the cause of education received fitting 
acknowledgment in many ways. In 1816 he was invited to take 
charge of the Wesleyan seminary about to be opened in ^ew York 
city, but declined the call. In 1824 he was elected president of 
Asbury College, Baltimore, a suspended institution which its friends 
were trying to revive ; but the Church called him to the Book Agency. 
He was afterward invited in succession to the presidency of Madison 
and Alleghany Colleges, Pennsylvania, and the presidency, and pro- 
fessorship of moral science, in Randolph Macon College, Yirginia. 
He declined these positions because he did not consider his health 
vigorous enough to bear the strain which the proper discharge of their 
duties would impose upon him. He received the degree of A. M. 
from St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland, in 1822, and that of 
J). D. from Washington College, Maryland, in 1823. His name, 
however, always apj)'eared in his publications without a title. Several 
institutions were named after him ; among them, Emory Academy, 
of the Mississippi Conference ; Emory and Henry College, of the 
Holston Conference; and Emory College, of the Georgia Conference. 

Bishop Emory was an earnest advocate of the missionary cause. 
He was an active supporter of the Methodist Missionary Society in its 
earlier days ; he spoke for it and assisted in establishing branch socie- 
ties. He was prominent in forwarding the Methodist Bible and Tract 



John Emo^y. 219 

Society ; lie wrote several letters sketching the principles on which it 
shoTild be organized, and the details of organization. He defended the 
policy of keeping enterj^rises of this kind separate within the Church, 
instead of having them absorbed in societies which the Church could 
not control. He originated a scheme to establish a publishing fund in 
aid of the Bible, Sunday-school, and Tract Societies of the Church, the 
object of which was to lay a permanent foundation for conducting the 
enterprises of those societies on a more extensive scale, and enable them 
to reduce the prices of their publications to the lowest practicable rates. 

Besides the articles and works of which we have spoken, Bishop 
Emory wrote several works in vindication of the doctrines, institutions, 
and orders of the Methodist Episcopal Chnrch, against attacks upon 
them by members of other denominations. Bishop White, of the Prot- 
estant Episcopal Church, in 1817, published in the " Christian Register " 
an essay entitled " Objections against the Personal Assurance of the Par- 
don of Sin by a Direct Communication of the Holy Spirit." Mr. Em- 
ory wrote two pamphlets in reply to this article. In 1818 a Mr. Wright 
published in the "l^ational Messenger," Georgetown, D. C, an article 
against the doctrine of the divinity of Christ. Mr. Emory replied in 
several communications to the same journal, which were afterward j^ub- 
lished in a pamphlet. He was engaged at the time of his death upon 
a new and profound work in defense of the polity of the Church, to 
which was given the title of " The Episcopal Controversy Reviewed." 

Only one of his sermons has been preserved. It was the one 
which he preached before the British Conference, in 1820 ; a sermon 
of great strength and beauty, which was much admired in England 
and the United States. His preaching, as described by his son, was 
characterized by cogent arguments and striking illustrations, with 
exhortations enforced by earnest remonstrances and pathetic appeals. 
^' Despising all affectation, whether of pomp or carelessness, he strove, 
both in reading and speaking, to be perfectly natural, and perhaj)s 
few have been more successful in that difficult effort. With a voice 
naturally feeble, he was able, by the distinctness of his enunciation, 
to make himself heard through the largest assemblies." In debate, he 
spoke to the point, carefully presenting his arguments in a clear and 
effective manner, and the substance of his address always justified its 
being made. His intellectual superiority, the accuracy of his thought, 



220 Methodist Bishops. 

and the thorougliness of his knowledge, were manifested in all that 
lie said or did ; and he was as ready as he Avas accurate and thorough. 

Bishop Emory died just when he had attained his highest vigor 
and his most active usefulness. On the 16th of December, 1835, he 
started in the morning from his hom'e in Eeisterstown, ^laryland, for 
Baltimore, six miles distant. He was thrown out of his carriage while 
descending a hill, in some manner which has never been ascertained, 
and was shortly afterward found lying insensible in the road, with 
his skull fractured from haA'ing struck a stone. He never recovered 
consciousness, but died the same evening. He left a widow and 'Q.ye 
children, in comfortable circumstances. He had inherited a o'ood 
estate, and his wife was also possessed of property. 

Bishop Emory's first wife was Caroline, daughter of Francis Sel- 
lers, Ebq., of Hillsborough, Md., to whom he was married in 1813. 
She died in 1815, while he was stationed in Wilmington, Del. He 
was married a second time to Anna, daughter of Thomas Wright, 
Esq., of Queen Anne County, Md., an esteemed local preacher of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. She survived him several years. 

The character of Bishop Emory was fully revealed in the work 
he did for the Church, and was accredited in the highest manner in 
the succession of honors which it hastened to confer upon him. A 
careful review of his life brings out with strong force the fact that 
he allowed his personality to be sunk to an extraordinary degree in 
his ministerial and official character. It is ever to be regretted 
that so little of his private life has been placed upon record. It 
could not have failed to be rich in personal incident and advent- 
ure, and in reminiscences of the distinguished men with whom he 
came in contact. iS'othing of it remains, however, except a few 
allusions in private letters, and some notices of his delightful sojourn 
in England while a messenger to the British Conference, in which 
he described with particular pleasure his visit to the family of Dr. 
Adam Clarke. His family life is known to have been rich in affec- 
tion, and his social life one of refined and genial intercourse with 
his intimates, official and personal. Those who knew him best have 
failed to give such a clear picture of his personality as it would be 
desirable to have. 

The Kev. Dr. M'Clintock, who was a clerk in the Book Con- 



John Emory. 221 

cern during Dr. Emory's administration, lias left a careful estimate 
of liis personal qualities as they were observed by liis subordinates, 
but it presents liim as a man of business ratlier than in his private 
character. He was prompt, so that "no man," says Dr. M'Clin- 
tock, "ever knew him unprepared for an emergency; none ever 
found him behindhand with his engagements. . . . He was never 
seen ' unemployed — never triflingly employed.' ... I do not remem- 
ber to have known him once to spend fifteen minutes in occasional 
conversation with preachers and others dropping in. He would 
exchange the common courtesies of society, and if any business was 
to be attended to he was ready for it ; if not, he very soon let it 
be known that he had occupations on hand which were not to be 
neorlected." He showed himself to be as accurate in his knowledge 
of the details of the business as he w^as comprehensive in his con- 
ception of it as a whole. Uniformity " was a striking feature of 
his character in all its aspects," and " gave additional value to his 
varied talents by insuring their constant and unwavering activity." 
His manner toward visitors and subordinates was uniformly court- 
eous. '• The same urbanity," says Dr. M'Clintock, " that marked his 
intercourse with men of his own age and standing, characterized 
his conduct toward the youngest clerk in the Book Concern. He 
never forgot the rules of genuine politeness ; he was, in the truest 
sense of the word, a gentleman." "While his mental habits " caused 
a directness in his communications which those who did not know 
him might suppose to be sternness, no one ever received from him 
a word calculated to w^ound the feelings or to hurt the tenderest 
susceptibility." 

He was exact in money matters, as in other concerns, and it is 
doubted if he ever gained a dollar by the offices which he had in 
the Church. It is related of him that at the close of one year's 
ministerial service in Washington, the station being straitened for 
funds, he returned to the stewards all of the money appropriated 
for the support of himself and his family which had not been 
actually spent. 

No good portrait of him exists. The Rev. Dr. Robert Emory, 
describing his personal appearance, says that he was rather under 
the ordinary size, though very well proportioned, and weighed about 



222 Methodist Bishops. * 

one liimdred and tAventy-iive pounds. His conntenance was manly, 
and his features had a ''classic regularity." "When at rest, there 
was a thonghtfulness impressed upon his countenance which might 
sometimes be mistaken for sternness ; but in social intercourse, 
although he was scarcely ever known to laugh, his face was often 
lighted by a smile, while the benignity of his heart beamed from 
his eye. lie always carried himself very erect. . . . From his youth 
he was an early riser; and the practice was continued, even when 
the distressing sleeplessness by which he was for some years afflicted 
might have pleaded for greater indulgence. But he was equally 
careful to retire early." He was careful as to the cleanliness of his 
person and the neatness of his dress, but •'conscientiously refrained 
from the display or the extravagance of fashion. Over his appetite 
he seemed to have the most com^plete control," and "was emphat- 
ically a redeemer of time." 

His friends and the Church are able to recall every feature of his 
career with unalloyed satisfaction ; but they look back to his manage- 
ment of the Eook Concern as constituting his especial title to be hon- 
orably remembered. He might have rendered equally, perhaps more, 
valuable service as bishop had he lived to carry out the plans he had 
formed. He was given time as Book Agent to finish what he under- 
took, and give the Church a complete and permanent work. Bishop 
Waugh closed an account of his character and services by saying : 
"I^ot only will Dr. Emory's name be of precious memory as a man, a 
Christian, a minister of Christ, and a Methodist bishop, but in the 
annals of Methodism he will stand unrivaled as the sagacious, enter- 
prising, and indefatigable head of the Methodist Book Concern." 




ffiST:- BiE"?3imL¥. W4JU(SE 



Dl 






'€^yM^^'duj-^^ (^^■'Uj-'C/^'-A'^y^ ^^i//j/;^/^ . 



U)l;:-l)P(i St ti^r BoOl; 



Lj-ry" -St. -'N.J o: 



Beverly Waugh. 



BY EEV. II. B. EIDGAWAY, D.D. 



THE wise and devout Fenelon, alluding to the rarity of good men, 
says : " The comparison only makes us too highly prize those 
persons who are true, gentle, trustworthy, reasonable, susceptible of 
friendship, and superior to all self-interest." * Bishop Waugh may be 
recalled as one of those rare good men in whom the qualities here 
mentioned were so united as to constitute him not only a person of 
eminent worth, but also such a character as to lead men every-where 
to lean ujDon him, and to feel more hopeful of their race because he 
was one of them. 

Beverly Waugh was born in Fairfax County, Yirginia, on the 28th 
of October, 1Y89. His parents were James and Henrietta Waugh. 
Mr. James Waugh was a substantial farmer, and a captain in the State 
militia. In the latter capacity he led a company from his native 
county during the Kevolutionary War to assist in repelling Lord 
Cornwallis from Yirginia, and it is likely that he was present at the 
surrender at Yorktown. The childhood of Beverly was spent at 
home, surrounded by the genial influences which in that early period 
pervaded the best Yirginia families. He received such education as 
the limited opportunities of his neighborhood aiforded. His morals 
were carefully guarded, and he grew up without contracting the vices 
to which youths too often become subject. At the age of fifteen years 
he was converted to God, and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church 
under the ministry of the Rev. Thomas F. Sargent, who was then the 
preacher in charge at Alexandria, Ya. 

Just where young Waugh lived from 1804: to 1807 does not 
appear from any record at hand ; but I infer he was employed during 
this time in one of the government offices in Washington City. It 
was in this position he acquired the admirable chirography and the 
aptitude for accounts which afterward so distinguished him. In 

* Sainte Beuve's " Monday Chats." Mathews. 



226 Methodist Bishops. 

1807, while residing at Alexandria, and serving as a clerk in the store 
of a Mr. Robbins, he began keeping a journal of the main facts of his 
life, a cnstom which was continned until within a few years of his 
death. This journal comprises several manuscript volumes, the first 
of which is superscribed in his own neat handwi'iting : "Beverly 
Waugh's Journal, March 7, 1807, Alexandria." 

The first entry is characteristic of the jealous care he ever after- 
ward exercised over his heart : " I have been sorely buffeted by Satan 
for some days back. Do thou, O Lord, grant me a deliverance from 
every snare." Two days later he is struggling to be wdiolly the Lord's, 
and begins already to feel intimations of a call to preach the gospel: "I 
bless God for the desire I have to be wholly given up to God and his 
work. I think I am willing to become any thing or nothing so I m^y 
but enjoy the smile of my God. ... I feel too much of a trifling, 
laughing spirit, and yet I have been for some days back tempted (I think 
I may venture to say) to believe I shall be a preacher of God's holy 
word ! I pray God if it be a temptation it may be done away, and if 
it be from God it may be increased. With regard to this I feel that 
if it be the will of God to send by me, I should be happy to be the 
servant of God, though I am the most unworthy of all God's people, 
and as weak as a child in tilings of this nature ; but I know God has 
chosen, and may again choose, the weak things of this world to con- 
found the mighty. I am, I say, willing if God calls, to obey, but I 
hope I shall never thrust myself out. My trust is in God. I hope 
he will make my way and duty plain." 

Again : "I have not been so much exercised about my ever being 
called to preach, and have had awful fears that I shall get so much 
attached to this vain world that I shall at last get again into sin. I 
pray God to reign in me, and deliver me out of all my troubles." 

When eighteen years of age Mr. Waugh removed to Middleburgh, 
Loudon County, where he kej)t a grocery for Mr. Robbins, his em- 
ployer. January 11, 1808, he writes : " Soon after my arrival here 1 
was tempted in so powerful a manner that I was afraid I should at 
last give way to the tempter, and again grieve the Holy Spirit of 
promise. But hallelujah to my God, his grace has been sufficient for 
me. . . . My intention in coming here was to have an opportunity to 
purchase me a horse, etc., and I intend in course of next summer to go 



Beverly Waugh. 227 

around on some circuit witli one of the preachers, in order that I may 
find out and do tlie will of God." In due time the horse was pur- 
chased, and the young store-keej^er was wont to ride out in the even- 
ings to points adjacent to the village to attend prayer-meetings ; 
and thus his gifts were exercised in prayer and exhortation. He was 
appointed a class-leader. The conviction of a further and greater 
vocation contiimed to press upon him. 

" But O, my soul, there is yet another duty required. And must 
I take up the cross and follow Jesus ? Must I give up my dear 
relations ; my father, his house, his lands, my brothers and sisters ? 
And must I give up my own will, and * be directed by God to call 
sinners to repentance or I cannot be his disciple ? I must ; the word 
of truth declares I must. ... I want to be a faithful and obedient 
servant of God. Yet O, the greatness of the work ! To preach the 
gospel, who is able ? Lord, if I must speak for thee, and declare thy 
counsel to men, speak, O speak through me, and by me, or rather 
never let me attempt it." 

Soon after this record of his feelings he began to preach at differ- 
ent " appointments " in the neighborhood. On July 29, 1808, after 
having made it matter of prayer that God would show him his duty, 
he started to go with '' Brother Rowan " one " round " on Stafford 
Circuit. Instead of turning back within a few days, as he expected, 
he was so far encouraged that he completed the round. Then after 
a camp-meeting near Leesburgh, he agreed to take the Rev. Mr. Hemp- 
hill's appointment, on Fairfax Circuit, while Mr. Hemphill attended 
the Winchester camp-meeting. Thus he continued, first with one 
preacher and then with another, trying his wing^-sometimes encour- 
aged with his efforts, and sometimes so disheartened that he was ready 
to go home. What more admirable system was ever devised to hreak 
in young preachers, especially at a period when educational facilities 
were scarce, and the necessities of evangelistic work w^ere urgent ! 

In October, 1808, Mr. Waugh took the step which finally committed 
him to the itinerant ministry: "I go now with Rev. H. Jefferson, pre- 
siding elder, to Lancaster Circuit, which station I am to take for the 
winter." On this circuit, in a section known as the Northern ISTeck of 
Yirginia, he preached and w^orked incessantly, having, as he tells us, 
" some painful exercises," " being convinced that there is no station in 
14 



228 Methodist Bishops. 

the world which has not its peculiar attendant trials," but withal 
breathing after holiness and usefulness, and imposing on his heart 
increased watchfulness. January Y, 1809, he says : " I am now on my 
last round on this part of the circuit. ... I mourn on account of the 
little good that appears to have been done, and that the signs and 
seals of my mission are scarcely visible at all ; yet I hope I shall de- 
liver my soul. ... I long to see better times ; to enjoy more of the 
love of God in my soul. I see the need of more watchfulness, of 
more stability, of more seriousness, and more attention to my studies 
and reading. . . . How bad, how disagreeable, to be drawn from 
things of more substarice and importance to things not worth a 
thouglit ! . . . I find my trials arising from a source where I never 
suspected they would; every moment dangers and snares surround 
me. I once thought, that of all people in the religious world 
preachers of the gospel were the happiest, and had the fewest 
trials, . . . but my opinion is now changed, and I know not but 
they, of all men, have the most trials. But hold ! I fear I am too 
ready to complain." 

The next entry is as follows: "This night I hope will ever be 
ranked by me one of the best nights. While we were pouring out 
our souls in family prayer, the power of the Lord came down upon 
us, and prostrate to the floor did I fall, when 1 felt the power and 
presence of my dear Master and merciful God, while some of the 
sinners wept and trembled. O glory be to God, for his favors and 
blessings ! " 

These extracts indicate at the very commencement of Mr. Waugh's 
ministry the special traits which ever after marked his career. His 
emotional nature was very strong, and much of his power lay in the 
wealth of his sensibilities. At the same time the substantial moral 
and intellectual convictions are foreshown, which did always underlie 
his tender feelings. 

In the spring of 1809 he was received on trial in the Baltimore 
Conference, and appointed as junior preacher to Stafford Circuit, 
Yirginia. He entered hopefully upon the new field, but soon had 
occasion to complain of the low state of religion and the carelessness 
of sinners. In the month of August he attended a camp-meeting in 
Fairfax Circuit, where he was greatly refreshed by seeing sinners 



Beverly Waugh. 229 

converted, and especially by the conversion of liis own brother Towns- 
hend. '' Glory be given to God," is at this time Mr. Waugh's entry in 
liis journal, "for his tender mercies bestowed on me. I have felt 
mnch engaged for three or four days in declaring the counsel of God. 
I still long for perfect love, perfect humility, and perfect resigna- 
tion." The next spring he was assigned to Greenbrier Circuit, in the 
mountainous regions of south-west Virginia. The change for the 
youthful preacher from the settled country of old Virginia, and tlie 
neighborhood of home, to the comparative wilds of the western 
part of the State, was at first depressing, but he aroused himself and 
was soon happy in his new work. His refined nature accepted all 
the ills of a rude civilization with cheerfulness. In long-after years 
he used to recount with much zest the experiences of his Greenbrier 
days. In tlie~ liighlands as in the lowlands he is found manifesting 
the same zeal and activity, and through his journal there breathes the 
same yearning after God. "I feel much concerned to have all my 
thoughts, tempers, words, and actions under the proper direction of 
the Holy Spirit of God. I see the many imperfections which follow 
and are mingled with all my performances." 

The keen observation of the authorities of the Church already dis- 
cerned the promise there was in young Mr. Waugh, and he was accord- 
ingly transferred the next year from his remote mountainous circuit 
to the city of Washington, and stationed at the Navy Yard Church. 
" May 6, 1811. My labors in this place are not severe — public preaching 
three times a week, two public prayer-meetings, and generally one 
class to meet each week, an official meeting to attend once every two 
weeks, and also to visit from house to house to sing and pray, together 
with visiting the sick, and the instruction of the children, etc., will 
include nearly all the external labor of the station." Quite enough of 
external work for a young man of twenty-one years ! It is not sur- 
prising he should say in his very next record, " I think it would be 
better were I on a circuit." He soon missed the exhilaration of horse- 
back riding in the open country, and the variety of preaching on 
successive Sabbaths to different congregations. And now, in addition 
to labors external and internal connected with the charge, his youthful 
breast began to be agitated with the gentle passion. Thoughts of mar- 
riage obtruded unbidden upon his mind. "I have considered the 



230 Methodist Bishops. 

exercise as proceeding, perhaps," (a very liopefiil ]3erliaps,) " from an 
evil source ; consequently have prayed for its removal. I do not want to 
entangle myself, for fear of neglecting the work of an itinerant preacher, 
to which I am at present in affection inseparably attached." He did 
not pray successfully against his " perhaps," and events hastened him 
forward toward matrimony. ISTot, however, until the next spring does he 
record : '' Tuesday night, April 21, 1812, after prayer for direction 
and mature reflection, I was married to Catharine B. Bushby, of Wash- 
ington City, by the Rev. 'N. Snethen." Miss Bushby, who henceforth 
became the faithful wife of Mr. Waugh, Avas of good English and 
Methodist extraction. She was the daughter of Mr. "William Bushby, 
one of the original twelve or fourteen members who, in 1788, founded 
the first Methodist Society at Alexandria, Ya. 

In the sj)ring of 1812 Mr. Waugh was appointed to Stephensburgh 
Circuit, in the valley of Yirginia. From that date there is no entry in 
his journal until 1818. A registry, however, which contains the texts 
of Scripture from which he preached, and the number of miles he 
traveled, was faithfully kept. A round of twenty-three preaching- 
places, covering a large extent of country, necessitating preaching 
almost every day in the week, with rough roads and swollen streams 
to encounter, was the scene of his first year of wedded life. At the 
time when his journal was resumed, he is again stationed in Washing- 
ton City. Meanwhile, he had been appointed successively to Balti- 
more City, (1813,) to Montgomery Circuit, Maryland, (1814, 1815,) to 
Berkeley Circuit, Ya., (1816,) and to Washington, (1817.) 

" January 23, 1818. !N^ear six years are gone since I last wrote in 
this book. In this period, short as it has been, I have passed through 
scenes and trials that I never knew before. I thauk God, his mercy 
has not failed. He has been astonishingly good." During these years 
three children were born to him, and from the references to tempta- 
tions and trials, it is easy to suppose that the ardent itinerant had been 
assailed at the point at which so many of the earlier traveling preachers 
were attacked — the temptation "to take a location." Many of the 
ablest and best men of early Methodism, in the struggle between 
natural affection and devotion to the itinerancy yielded to the former, 
and were lost to the pastoral work. 

Sunday, January 25, 1818, had been a day of unusual refreshing 



Beverly Waugh. 231 

while preaching. He records in his journal, " O how sorry I am that 
I have not had more true zeal for the glory of God and the salvation 
of souls. It seems to me that I have just awaked out of sleep. I 
have always found a great difficulty in ordering my conversation aright 
on the subject of religion. I have always been too general. I am 
now determined, by divine help, to be more abundant, more pointed, 
and more particular in my conversations with my fellow-men on this 
important and interesting subject." It is well to note this resolution. 
The remarkable faculty for religious conversation which he was subse- 
quently known to possess may be traced to the determination thus 
early formed to cultivate this rare and useful gift. 

Another gap occurs in his journal. His text registry, however, 
shows how constantly and fully he labored in the Baltimore City 
Station, (1818,) in the Fells' Point Station, Baltimore, (1819, 1820,) 
and in Georgetown Station, D. C, (1821, 1822.) The omission in the 
journal is the more to be regretted because the young minister began 
in this interval to be designated as a leading man among his brethren. 
He was elected by the Baltimore Conference to represent it in the 
second and third delegated General Conferences of the Church, those 
of 1816 and 1820. In the proceedings of these Conferences, in which 
it was sought to definitely shape the polity of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, he took rather advanced ground, and on the question of an 
elective presiding eldership he voted affirmatively with such men as 
Elijah Hedding, John Emory, and Alfred Griffith, on what are known 
as the resolutions of 1820. These resolutions not only made the incum- 
bents of the presiding eldership elective, but also constituted them an 
advisory council of the bishop in stationing preachers. The resolu- 
tions, notwithstanding they were passed by a two-thirds vote, were 
suspended mainly because of the opposition of Bishop M'Kendree 
and the Rev. Joshua Soule. Mr. Soule had been elected to the office 
of a general superintendent, but declined ordination on account of 
these resolutions, deeming them, as he maintained, an invasion of epis- 
copal authority. The opposition of such men as Mr. Soule led to a 
heated controversy in the interval of the years 1820 and 1824. The 
Baltimore Conference arrayed itself against the resolutions, and the 
party of Mr. Waugh being in a minority, he failed of an election to 
the General Conference of 1824. 



232 Methodist Bishops. 

As might be supposed, sharp and even bitter words were spoken 
during the agitation pending this election. Mr. Waugh did not escape 
his share of the hard epithets. A letter written by him to Bishop 
George about this period deserves a place here, but for want of space 
I can give only such portions as are sufficient to indicate his feelings. 
After narrating the unselfish motives which led him to join the itiner- 
ancy he says : " Notwithstanding I have seen (as I conceive) the pro- 
priety of a modification of our government, still I w^ish to be known 
as the dutiful son, and not the unnatural monster that would destroy 
that which gave him life and being. Modified and administered as it 
is at present," [alluding to the government of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church,] " I am happy in being able to say I can, and by the help of 
God intend to, continue with you, although I hope it will ever be my 
fixed purpose to do what I shall believe to be my duty in regard to the 
improvement of our system in theory and practice, and from which 
duty nothing shall ever induce me to shrink — neither promises nor 
threatenings, neither rewards nor punishment. My ground is taken." 

Bishop George had talked with him about stationing him at Pitts- 
burgh, Pa., and also returning him to a circuit, and the conversation 
led him, in the same letter, to speak of the itinerancy in a manner 
which foreshadows the views which he entertained after he himself 
had been elected to the episcopacy : '' I presume every true lover of 
the itinerancy will be willing to make the necessary sacrifices. If not, 
let them get out of the way. All that can be required is, that there 
shall be an equality in labors and sacrifices as near as can be. If 
it fall to my lot to break the ice, I submit cheerfully, and will promptly 
obey. This is the way, sir, to ascertain who are the true friends of 
the itinerancy. . . . It is an easy matter when a man has a firm anchor 
cast in a safe harbor to talk of the necessity and excellency of navigat- 
ing the ocean, however stormy it may be, to all who are, like himself, 
safely moored for the season." 

After assuring Bishop George of his readiness to go either to Pitts- 
burgh or to a circuit, and of his appreciation of the bishop's consider- 
ation for him, he continues : ''If, sir, in any place the people think 
that I would be to them a burden, I pray you appoint me not to 
serve. I cannot serve a people under such circumstances. And 
whenever the jpeojple shall become tired of me, I shall consider my 



Beverly Waugh. 233 

mission ended, and it will give me neither pain nor mortification to 
retire. But let me be satisfied that it is the people, and not the 
presiding elder, who complain." 

As I have previonsly stated, Mr. Wangli was sent to Georgetown, 
D. C, and neither to Pittsburgh nor a circuit, and thus wsis, possibly 
saved bj the considerate action of the episcopacy from becoming a 
radical in Church politics. Had he been punished for his views, 
his mind might have been warped by what he might have regarded 
as unjust treatment, and his sincere questionings as to wholesome 
modifications would probably have been precipitated into a demand 
for radical changes. As events followed, while there is no proof 
that his opinion as to the desirableness and constitutionality of an 
elective presiding eldership was ever abandoned, it is evident that he 
became reconciled to the usage of the Church, and stopped sliort, 
as did many of those who agreed with his views, of joining the 
ranks of those who subsequently advocated revolutionary measures. 
As late as 1827 he received a letter from the Rev. S. G. Roszell, 
asking him to say distinctly whether he was in favor of the suspended 
resolutions. Whereupon he remarks : "And wherefore does he make 
this inquiry? God forbid that the spirit of electioneering should 
ever prevail among the preachers." 

There are no further entries in Mr. Waugh's journal until toward 
the close of his pastorate in Georgetown. These give proof of his 
untiring devotion to pastoral work, and of his constant efforts for 
improvement as a preacher. He studied such books as Brown's 
" Philosophy of the Mind," and treasured up some of its most 
important reflections. Another extract from his journal reads as 
follows : — 

" January 2, 1823. This day I have been enabled in some tolerable 
degree to have my mind stayed on God in prayer and watchfulness. 
But I have not the deep communion Avith God which I believe to be 
the privilege .of holy souls. O my God, quicken and revive my soul ! 
I want more zeal for God. Peligion ixi Georgetown is at a very low 
ebb. My situation is far from agreeable ; this, however, would com- 
paratively be of small concern if I could have evidences that my labors 
are owned of God, and consequently useful." He found genial, social 
relaxation during these years in the hospitable mansion of Mr. Foxall, 



234 Methodist Bishops. 

whom lie regarded as " a rich man who promises fair to enter into the 
kingdom of heaven." 

For the years 1823 and 1824 Mr. Waugh was preacher in charge 
of Frederick Circuit, which covered the fairest and most fertile por- 
tion of Western Maryland. He found the state of religion low, but 
was gratified with increased congregations and growth in spirituality 
through the first year. Returning from the Conference session at 
Winchester, Ya., April, 1824, he remarks : "I wish I may forget some 
circumstances connected with this Conference, especially in relation to 
the election of delegates to the General Conference. Alas ! what is 
man? What are good men ? Imperfection incarnated ! " From Win- 
chester he rode home with Bishop George, "with whom," he says, 
" I had some conversation on the subject of lay delegation. He is 
decidedly opposed to it." Mr. Waugh visited the General Conference 
at Baltimore, concerning which he says, " I was not gratified with my 
visit. I very much fear that there is a more alarming declension 
from the spirit and power of religion among us than we are willing 
to admit. O God, restore us ! O God, revive us ! " 

At their camp-meeting this summer the people of Frederick were 
favored with a visit from the Rev. H. B. Bascom, chaplain of the 
national House of Bepresentatives. It is interesting to see how Mr. 
Bascom's preaching impressed Mr. Waugh. "At four o'clock Brother 
Bascom preached ; his theme was ' practical Christianity.' I have 
heard what I, until now, considered extravagant eulogies on his tal- 
ents, but, having heard for myself, I must say he is the greatest man I 
ever heard, in the pulpit, at the bar, or in the legislative hall. Fle is 
a prodigy." Again : " We prevailed on Brother Bascom to give us 
another sermon. He preached on the ' Evidences of Christianity,' 
and was ev-en greater than he was yesterday. A man of endless 
resources. The half was never told me of him." Scores of persons 
were converted during this meeting, and a re^dval followed throughout 
the circuit. The year closed with large additions, but the labors and 
exposures greatly impaired Mr. Waugh's health, so far so that he suf- 
fered ever after from their effects. 

In April 1825, Mr. Waugh was appointed, by Bishop Soule, to 
Severn Circuit, Md. For domestic reasons he was transferred to 
Baltimore City Station : " The manner in which the whole affair was 



Beverly Waugii. 235 

conducted made it peculiarly grateful," he says, " to my feelings. Is 
not the hand of Providence seen in all this ? I am sure I can never 
forget those circumstances so long as I have memory." The cliange 
was made principally through the intervention of Messrs. J. Berry and 
R. Armstrong, to whom his distress was apjDarent, and who represented 
his condition to the bishop without his knowledge. I remember in 
after years to have had this incident substantially from Colonel Berry's 
own lips. The colonel evidently regarded it as a crisis in Mr. Waugh's 
itinerant life, and properly congratulated himself that he had a share 
in saving to the Church a future bishop. What man may not need, 
at some time in his career, the opportune offices of friendship ? 

From this period Mr. Waugh's star was ever in the ascendant. His 
career was onward and upward, and gathered momentum and fullness 
to its close. -He was in his thirty-sixth year, with an admirable j;A?/.5- 
iqtce^ tall, and weil-formed, weighing at least two hundred pounds ; his 
intellect was rapidly expanding ; his religious experience had attained 
much ripeness ; and his whole character was fast assuming the propor- 
tions which were clearly pointing him out as a leader among his peers. 
His official position was subordinate to that of Eev. Samuel Merwin, 
who was the preacher in charge. He was immediately the recipient 
of those kind attentions for which the Methodists of Baltimore have 
always been noted. His family were removed to a more commodious 
house, and he was welcomed by frequent invitations, in connection 
with his colleagues, to the hospitable homes of the jDeople. The City 
Station at that time included the whole of Baltimore City except 
Fells's Point, or East Baltimore, and comprised four white and two 
colored congregations. 

His journal for the year records continued and faithful work in 
preaching, pastoral visitation, class-leading, and counsel. All was not 
encouraging. Of a love-feast at Eutaw-street Church, he says : " It 
was dull, dull, dull." ..." We had not so many children at catechis- 
ing. . . . O, the criminal neglect and indifference of parents toward 
their children ! . . . I heard some criticism to-day on my morning's 
discourse of yesterday. One kindly said it was a good sermon ; 
another truly^ I was unpleasantly tedious in getting at my text, 
etc. I must endeavor to improve in the matter and manner of my 
preaching. O my God, help me ! " 



236 Methodist Bishops. 

The custom of attending camp-meetings was early adoj)ted by the 
Baltimore Methodists, and this year Mr. Waugh and his colleagues 
were found promptly on the ground, surrounded by large numbers of 
their own people, and of the people of the adjacent country. The 
Sabbath of the meeting was a great day : " Brother J. Frye again 
preached at the eight o'clock morning meeting, and the people were 
much affected. At ten o'clock there was an immense concourse pres- 
ent, to whom Brother Soule" [a modest appellation for a bishop] 
"preached, and was followed in half an hour by Brother Merwin. 
Doctor Bond preached a good sermon at night, and I exhorted. . . . 
This was the greatest night of all. O glory ! glory ! I was never at 
camj)-meeting before when I felt so much religious influence on my 
heart. The work of God gloriously revives." The influence of the 
meeting was at once felt in promoting a general revival in the city 
Churches. Exeter-street was especially favored. But Avhile Exeter 
was revived Eutaw slumbered. After Mr. J. I^. Maffit had preached 
at the latter he inquired : " Why was not the effect of his dis- 
courses greater ? O, Eutaw, what is the matter ? Search and prove 
us, O God." 

Tlius the year glided on, affording evidences not only of his devo- 
tion to work, but also to self-improvement. He read but little, and 
digested it well. He heard scientific lectures. He listened with 
patience and teachableness to suggestions on his style of preaching: 
"Brother Yearly, with whom I supped, and who is a man of con- 
siderable mind, very tenderly suggested that I occupied too much 
time in the introduction of my discourses, and also that I was too 
much in the hal)it of apologizing in the close of my sermons. I 
must endeavor to profit by his hints." During this year Mr. Waugh 
was a party to the formation of the Preachers' Aid Society of the 
Baltimore Conference. He was also active in tlie movement which 
committed the Conference to the cause of Christian missions and of 
Sunday-school instruction. I find him also predicting the troubles 
which the agitation on "reform" was likely to bring upon the 
Church, and seeking to prevent them by ad^dsing a course of frank- 
ness and conciliation. He went so far as to prepare an address, which, 
after being approved by Bishop M'Kendree, he presented to a com- 
mittee at the approaching Conference ; but the majority " rejected it, 



Beverly Waugh. 237 

professing it as tlieir opinion that it would do no good." '' My motives 
have been impugned, but God is mj judge. I have done what I 
thought ought to be done. Time will make it manifest." 

At this Conference (1820) he was returned to the City Station in 
charge, with Messrs. Paynter, Steele, Slicer, and Evans as colleagues. 
Mr. Henry Slicer was then a young man, and already gave promise of 
future eminence, l^o one more quickly discovered, or more promptly 
conceded, his abilities than did Mr, Waugh. The year was one of 
harmony and success. The preachers worked heartily together, and 
under the efficient direction of the preacher in charge the affairs of 
the station, with its various social conditions and heavy financial 
obligations, were managed with entire satisfaction. But if St. Paul 
Avas in " deaths oft," Mr. Waugh was in trials oft ; hardly a week 
elapsed thaf some member, either white or colored, was not arraigned 
for breach of the rules. That was a day when the Discipline was 
enforced, and every effort was made, so far as administration could 
effect it, to keep the Church pure. Perhaps at the time as great 
a mistake was made in having Church trials upon every pretext, as is 
now in the almost total disuse of them, even for the gravest offenses. 

The arrangement for the appointments for the 3^ear (referring to 
the so-called "plan" of preaching on successive Sundays) was un- 
satisfactory to the colored preachers, and they remonstrated in a body. 
Mr. Waugh, with his usual tact and kindliness, explained the matter 
to them in a way which caused them to leave his presence in good 
humor. The occurrence, however, caused him some grave apprehen- 
sions : "I had some painful reflections while they spoke — reflections 
caused by many tilings which were said in regard to distinctions, 
feelings, oppressions, etc., etc. . . . O my country, what scenes of 
horror and blood await thee from this portion of thy population ! I 
cannot bear to meditate on this subject. Merciful God ! interj)Ose for 
our deliverance by opening a way to remove this fearful evil." 

The whole air of Baltimore Conference Methodism was now filled 
with talk of " reform," " mutual rights, etc." Mr. Waugh began to 
feel the matter would not end with talk : " O, that we were more 
concerned to have a reform in our individual cases ! then we should 
not be so troubled about the government of the Church. There will 
be a division in the Methodist Episcopal Church before four years 



238 Methodist Bishops. 

from tills time, or else I cannot foretell." The agitation was be- 
coming animated, but had not yet reached the bitterness which 
subsequently marked its progress. Possibly this was due to his wise 
management. "Whatever may have been his views of the controversy 
in its first stages, he was never an advocate of extreme measures, 
and we find him promptly drawing back from the radical changes to 
which some well meaning but misguided men were hurrying the 
Church. He was not prepared for such steps as the abolishment of 
the offices of presiding elder and of general superintendency. The 
final issue in the City Station, where the opposing parties were con- 
centrated, did not come during liis administration ; but his journals 
show how earnestly he sought to check violent controversy iand 
action, not so much, indeed, by controversy as by the exercise of a 
firm and considerate policy. 

At the Conference of April 12, 1827, Mr. Waugh was secretary 
of the Conference and a member of tke Book Committee ; but not- 
withstanding the labors these positions imposed, he was found keenly 
alive for the spirituality of the session. On his motion special 
devotional exercises were appointed, and Good Friday was observed 
as a day of fasting and prayer. At this session the custom of holding 
a missionary anniversary was introduced. The Conference saw fit 
to disci23liue one of its members for agitation in the reform move- 
ment. Mr. AYaugh expresses himself thus : "I fear that the im- 
prudence of a leader in our Conference may have carried us too 
far in deciding in the case of D. B. Dorsey, one of our preachers. 
He, poor man, is far from being right, but this should not cause us 
to do wrong. ... It is, indeed, difficult to decide on the proper course 
to be pursued in relation to those who are usually denominated 
' radicals.' " He was this spring placed in charge of East Baltimore 
Station, which embraced what was known as Fells's Point and con- 
tiguous territory. The principal Churches were AYilk-street, Caroline- 
street, and Strawberry Alley. 

In making out the plan for preaching this year, Mr. Hanson, 
preacher in charge of the City Station, and himself, gave grave 
ofiense to the Beform party by leaving ofi: all the " Mutual Eights " 
local preachers. It is due to Mr. Waugh that I should give his o^tl 
words as to his position on the general question of reform : " After 



Beverly Waugh. 239 

liaving investigated the subject for some years, ... I have doubts 
whether (all things considered) we could materiallj improve our 
system. ... I cannot agree to such measures as would unquestionably 
change the character of the ministry from itinerant to local or 
settled. But the itinerant system cannot be kept in operation with- 
out an active and efficient superintendency. In a different state of 
things I might seek to have the pbwer of the superintendent some- 
what abridged and better guarded, but at present I am satisfied to 
attempt nothing, for fhis reason — that we might injure the vitals of 
our system in providing for imaginary defects, or at most in furnish- 
ing a remedy for possible evils which circumstances may never 
permit to take place actually P Again, " I find that there is a growing 
disjDOsition on the part of many of our friends in the City Station to 
have the Mntnal Rights men arraigned for breach of discipline. I 
fear lest there should be more zeal than prudence in this business. I 
have no doubt, however, that a separation must take place at no dis- 
tant period, and if they do not voluntarily leave us, they will be 
repudiated." ..." I have this day got hold of Dr. Bond's pamphlet.""'^ 
It is not unworthy of the cause and the man. He has certainly very 
much exceeded my expectations. This little book will give much un- 
easiness to Messrs. Shinn, Bascom, Snethen, and M'Caine, who are all 
occasionally touched with the point and ability of a Fletcher's pen." 

At the session of the Baltimore Conference, April, 1828, he was 
again elected a delegate to the G-eneral Conference, which met the 
following May at Pittsburgh, Pa. " Our General Conference com- 
menced at 9 A. M.," (Thursday, May 1, 1828.) " One hundred and 
seventy-seven members were returned elected, but only one hun- 
dred and twenty-five were present. There was much confusion in 
making the arrangements for doing the business. We have quite as 
many speakers as we ought to have unless they were more capable." 
Mr. Waugh was a member of the Committee on the Book Concern, 
and his business qualifications became so apparent in the work of the 
committee that his name was suggested for the important position of 
assistant agent at I^ew York : " I find that there has been much man- 
agement in relation to the assistant book agent, in which some who 
would have me to believe that they are my friends, appear to ha^'e 

* " An Appeal to Methodists," etc. 



240 Methodist Bishops. 

participated. This is somewliat mortifying and vexatious. I have no 
solicitude, . . . but it does not cause me to fellowship the means 
which have been resorted to for the purpose of keeping me from 
it." ... "I was informed to-day that the Xorthern delegates have 
determined to run me for the book agency. This seems to have 
thrown the South and ^Yest somewliat into confusion. Will they be 
defeated at last ? I have taken no -agency in any of this arrangement. 
I have asked no man to vote for me, either directly or indirectly, and. 
yet, without having any desire for that office, there is something in 
me which takes pleasure in being victorious over a coalition which I 
think was formed not in a proper spirit nor by suitable means. What 
is this ? Pride or revenge ? If it be either, God have mercy on me ! 
It may be that I have judged with too little charity." 

Mr. Waugli was elected assistant editor and book agent by a 
majority of thirty-iive votes over his competitor. Immediately on 
his return to Baltimore he was busied with preparations for the re- 
moval of his family to ]N^ew York, where, by midsummer, he was 
again settled at hoasekeeping. The change from the freedom of the 
pastorate to the confinement of the book agency was far from being 
agreeable; but he threw himself with all his might into the new 
position. Dr. John Emory, the principal agent, was a man of feeble 
body, and unavoidably called much away, and thus almost the wh*ole 
direction came upon him. He also took charge of the book-keeping, 
in order to save the Concern the expense of a clerk. Although con- 
stantly occupied during the secular week, he preached twice well-nigh 
every Sunday in Xew York or vicinity. So, in the midst of business 
his heart was found yearning after God. " I have not, I fear, during 
the past week, been as spiritual as I ought to have been ; and yet, 
glory to God ! I think I have been enabled to overcome some of my 
enemies. O, shall I ever be perfect in love ? " Further along he 
writes : " My present situation is by no means favorable to mental or 
moral culture, but what of this ? I want a religion so universal and 
so uniform that no changes of season or place will make any change in 
my mind." 

After attending the dedication of a new church at l^ewark, 'New 
Jersey, in June, 1829, he returned home sigliing for his old liberty: 
" I felt considerably recruited with the excursion, and hope that my 



Beverly Waugh. 241 

going over was not altogether in vain. How much more congenial to 
my inclination and habits than to be shnt np in a counting-house ! If 
I live to see the day of liberty return (1832) I think it will be hailed 
with delight, and- that I shall not again consent to be imprisoned 
another four years in ]^ew York." 

The day of anticipated freedom came — the General Conference of 
1832 — and. Mr. Waugh was not released, but unanimously returned as 
principal agent in the place of Dr. Emory, who had been elected to 
the ej)iscopacy. He w\as not a delegate to the Conference, and so his 
election was all the more creditable. Writing of the proceedings as 
late as the following antnmn, he says : " I was not altogether pleased 
with the electioneering spirit which I witnessed, particularly in re- 
gard to the bishops who were elected. I fear there was not all the 
simplicity of the fathers manifested by many of the preachers." He 
was pleased, however, with those who were elevated to " that aw^fully 
responsible " station, especially so with the election of his " esteemed 
colleague, Brother Emory." 

The business of the Book Concern had so rapidly expanded that 
it was necessary to provide it with new and larger accommodations. 
" ISTovember 24, 1833. We this day received proposals for our Book 
Boom on Mulberry-street. It will cost about $30,000, which is 
$5,000 more than I expected. It is to be a first-rate building, 
however." Soon after is the first allusion he makes to "pewed" 
churches : "I last Sabbath attempted to preach twice, the latter 
time in the Yestry-street church, wdiich has been just opened and 
dedicated to G-od. It is pewed ; at least, they rent the seats. How 
this will work time will determine. I fear it is the introduction of 
an inauspicious custom. I did not, however, think that I ought to 
refuse to preach the gospel even in a church with pews. I en- 
deavored to speak plainly, and was heard attentively." The humble, 
almost mortifying views he entertained at this time of his preaching 
appear in all his entries. " I was at Duane-street, where I attempted 
to preach ; but ah me ! how helpless ! how insipid ! I wonder that 
any should remain in the church during such a performance ! I 
hastened home to humble myself before God, and implore his forgive- 
ness ; but even here, how cold and unbelieving was my soul ! Lord 
Jesus, pity me, and have mercy on me ! " 



242 Methodist Bishops. 

Tlie session of the Baltimore Conference was held at Alexandria, 
Virginia, and while attending it Mr. Wangh ha/1 the happiness of 
being the guest of his former employer, Mr. Bobbins, and of renewing 
the associations from which he " started to itinerate as a Methodist 
preacher twenty-five years since." ^ew York, he tells ns, was the 
scene of violent mobs during the summer, caused by "the injurious 
conduct of the abolitionists." In the autumn, while visiting the 
Oneida and Genesee Conferences, he was thrown from a carriage near 
Bochester, IST. Y., but escaped without Imrt. The day after the 
accident he writes : '' I reached the conclusion of the forty-fifth year 
of my earthly pilgrimage. Alas, to what little good purpose have I 
lived so long on earth ! And yet how many mercies have I received 
from my divine benefactor. May I yet live through grace to glorify 
my God, and be of some use to my fellow beings ! " 

There seemed to Mr. Waugh a general declension of vital religion 
in the Churches : " Yet some of our leading men appear to think that 
it is owing to our not changing our measures and modes so as to keep 
pace witli the progress of the social and civil community. Is not this 
ominous ? " He was deeply pained this winter by the untimely death 
of Bishop Emory : " The most mournful intelligence which I could 
have received reached me this day. Bishop Emory is dead ! . . . I 
feel that I have lost my best personal friend. Yet he will be a 
greater loss to our Zion than to others. I had calculated much on the 
intelligence, the integrity, the piety, and zeal of this truly Methodist 
bishop, whom I have long and intimately known." 

The year 1836 opened auspiciously, and Mr. Waugh little imagined 
what an additional calamity was soon to fall upon him and the Church 
of which he was so unselfish a servant. "Thursday, February 18, 1836. 
How sadly memorable will this day be in the annals of Methodism ! 
This day the noble establishment at 200 Mulberry-street was con- 
sumed by fire. . . . The loss was nearly total, and amounted to 
upward of $200,000. ITever were the hopes of mortal more disap- 
pointed than mine on this mournful occasion. I had nearly reached 
the end of my second term, and was about preparing my report to the 
General Conference, and had every prospect of returning the charge 
which has so heavily pressed on me for nearly eight years free of 
debt, with vastly increased capital and avails — in fact, in the most 



Beverly Waugit. 243 

healthy and vigorous state which had ever marked its onward course — 
when, suddenly and violently, the cup was dashed from my lips." 

Mr. Waugh did not suffer in the estimation of the Church because 
of this great calamity. The following spring, although he was not a 
member of the General Conference, which met at Cincinnati, Ohio, 
May 1, 1836, he was by that body elevated to the general superin- 
tendency of the Church. No higher proof could have been given of 
the confidence of those who had the best opportunities of acquainting 
themselves with his personal and official fidelity. In accepting the 
high office he made the following modest and dignified address : — 

" Fathers and Brethren : Deep and strong emotions agitate my 
bosom on this occasion. . . . Deeply conscious of my utter inadequacy 
to the duties of the station which you have assigned me, I have 
anxiously inquired in my ow^n mind whether it was not my privilege, 
if not my duty, to decline the responsibility of so great a charge. Up 
to the very last moment I have trembled and have been dismayed alike 
in view of the affirmative and negative of the question which I have 
been called to decide. May I be permitted, fathers and brethren, to 
say, that I humbly trust, if no higher motives have governed in the 
conclusion at which I have arrived, a fear of sinning against God 
and offending against you, rather than a desire for distinction, . . . 
has been greatly influential ? . . . I need not remind you . . . how 
much I shall need your forbearance and indulgence. . . . Ask for me 
wisdom, heavenly and divine wisdom; ask for me unction of the 
Holy Spirit ; ask for my feebleness the seal of divine approbation. 
Of myself I can promise notliing. Ah ! my fellow-laborers, how 
greatly does the thought oppress me that my subsequent course of 
conduct is to determine the wisdom or folly of the General Confer- 
ence in selecting one to assist in the oversight of its vast interests, 
who at best is so unworthy of the trust. But I throw myself on your 
indulgence, and depart to my labor in confident reliance on Him who 
saith,. ' Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.' " 

In these plain, heartfelt words addressed to the General Confer- 
ence is seen the same sincerity, quiet dignity, and firm adherence to 
duty which had distinguished him since his first entrance upon the 
sacred ministry. The Bev. Bichard W. Betherbridge, who was pres- 
ent at his ordination to the episcopacy, wrote after his death : "I shall 
15 



244 Methodist Bishops. 

never forget when lie stood at the altar to be ordained to the highest 
office in our Chnrch, what agitation seized him, and how every muscle 
of his body shook, until copious tears came to his relief. He felt the 
weight of the responsibilities he was aboat to assume, and he was a 
man of exquisite sensibilities." 

Bishop Waugh had given the best proof of his fitness for the 
episcopacy by the efficiency wdth which he had discharged the duties 
of every trust hitherto committed to him. And although he must 
have felt gratified with the confidence which his brethren thus placed 
in him, yet those wdio knew him intimately could never question the 
genuineness of the modesty which led him to feel surprised at his 
election, and hesitation in accepting the office. "Who could have 
thought it?" he writes in his journal. "It was without any agency 
of mine, of course. But, much as I feel my utter inadequacy to the 
important work, I could not take myself out of the hands of my 
brethren. ... I beheld terror and dismay arrayed with acceptance, 
and I saw them associated with a refusal to accept." 

Other than this reference to his election and consecration to the 
general superintendency — as he always liked to call the e^^iscopacy — 
Mr. Waugh makes but little allusion in his journal to the business of 
the General Conference. The location of the Book Boom was con- 
tinued in I^ew York. " Abolitionism " was already present as an 
agitating element. After a decisive vote condemning it, he adds : 
" Can it be hoped that this question has been put to rest ? I fear that 
there is no ground on which to predicate such an expectation." He 
thus showed how correctly he read the signs of the times. 

The Troy Annual Conference w^as the first over which Bishop 
Waugh . presided. The session was held at Pawlet, Yt., beginning 
June 22, 1836. " This to me is a novel work, and how strangely do I 
find myself called to its performance ! . . . Without divine aid I must 
fail." Presiding elders, he thinks, " should always be wise, good, and 
tried men, since" they must assist " in the important, difficult, and 
awfully responsible work of stationing the preachers." "But how 
much did I at once perceive the necessity of knowing the preachers 
and the people, in order to a judicious distribution of laborers." 
In his journal at this Conference, as always, there breathes a tender 
and painful solicitude touching " making the appointments." To 



Beverly Waugh. 245 

balance the claims of men and of the Churches, and to adjust them 
wisely and harmoniously, was his deepest concern. Elevation to office 
did not separate liini from the fellowship of his former comrades, nor 
cause him to forget that he himself was once liable to suffer from 
being misunderstood and misplaced ; hence he was always, ready to 
listen kindly and patiently to the representations of both preachers 
and peojDle. 

At tiie close of the session, thankful to God for the harmony 
which liad prevailed, and for the general satisfaction wdiich the 
preachers showed with their appointments, he hastened to I^ew York, 
and there found the New York Conference, Bisho]3 Hedding pre- 
siding, still in session. He saw in council " the difficulty of station- 
ing the E^ew York Conference. I almost trembled when I thought 
that this will be my work another year." 

After removing his family back to Baltimore, Maryland, and 
getting settled once again, he remarks, " I must now recommence my 
studies, after an interval of about eight years. I shall doubtless find 
it more difficult now than ever; but it will not do to be intimidated 
by difficulties. May the study of my own heart and the word of God 
come in for a good share of my time and attention ! " He promptly 
gave himself to all the local enterprises of Baltimore and vicinity, 
lending a guiding and helping hand to every good work. The sum- 
mer Avas mostly spent in assisting at various camp-meetings. As the 
autumn approached he w^as obliged to prepare for his first long 
episco})al visitation. " August 22, 1836. After a nearly sleepless 
night I arose at four o'clock to prepare for my northern route. My 
poor Mrs. Waugh was greatly affected, but said nothing. I felt more 
than I expected, but I must commit all to God. At six o'clock I 
left the wharf, and expect not to return for nearly three months. It 
was well Bishop Asbury was not a married man. How much do I 
need more faith, love, and zeal ! " 

On his northern journey he touched for a short time at the resi- 
dence of ihe Rev. Freeborn Garrettson, near Rhinebeck-on-the-Hudson, 
then, as since, so famous for its graceful hospitality. At TJtica, JS^ew 
York, he was well pleased with the evidences of growing civilization 
which he saw among the Oneida Indians. September 1 he held the 
first session of the Black River Conference, at Watertown, and was 



246 Methodist Bishops. 

Qspeciallj impressed witli tlie missionary meeting wliicli took place on 
tlie Sabbatli evening of the session : " The effect was general and 
deep. The collection, inclnding the subscriptions, fell only a little 
short of §400 ! A result without a parallel in the country." 

His next point was Binghamton, the seat of the Oneida Confer- 
ence. Taking Cazenovia in his way, he saw the Conference Seminary 
located there. Here, for the first time in his life, he saw, at a wedding 
of one of the professors, water substituted for wine, and "hopes it 
may not be the last time." The jonrney was performed in a private 
carriage : " We stopped at a tavern to dine. I do not know what the 
horses got, but the poor men had to dine on salt — very salt — codfish 
and potatoes. Miserable taverns are ye all in this region ! " 

At the Conference he says: "How necessary are these annual 
meetings ! If they were omitted for a year much would be lost and 
more endangered. ... I have had to set my face like flint against 
recognizing relations which are unknown to the Discipline. I must 
be firm. O that I may be modest and mild ! I find considerable 
difficulty in making out the appointments in this Conference, chiefly 
because of the located state of the preachers' families. If this 
encroachment cannot be resisted and checked it will destroy the 
itinerancy. I shall endeavor to discountenance it." His next Con- 
ference was the Genesee, at Canandaigua. He made a brief call 
on the Eev. Mr. Hibbard, at Geneva, and in company with Mr. Hib- 
bard he came to Canandaigua, " a most beautiful village, where we 
have a good chnrch, but only a few members." At this Conference 
he met the same difficulty in stationing the preachers as at the 
Oneida: "The presiding elders appear to be mainly concerned for 
the accommodation of the preachers ; so that I had to say more than 
once. The people, the people ! "Who will care for the people ? If tliis 
evil cannot be remedied, in twenty years itinerancy will little more than 
exist by name in the Genesee Conference." After resting a day 
or two on the margin of the lovely lake on which the village is 
situated, he took u]3 his jonrney homeward; and at home, on the 
29th of October, he writes : " O that my return to my family for 
a season may be the means of good to them as well as of enjoyment 
to me ! " 

He was immediately absorbed with local and general church work. 



Beveely Waugh. 247 

'' November 21. At niglit I attended the meeting at Liglit-street for 
tlie relief of the Methodist Book Concern. It was not numerously 
attended. . . . The subscription was only a little upward of $2,000. 
Alas ! poor Baltimore. How art thou fallen from thy former mag- 
nanimity ! " Again he was at Light-street, at the annual collection 
for the poor: ''There were not more than two hundred j)ersoDs 
present, and I fear there was but little contributed. I think I shall 
not again shortly undertake the difficult task of drawing forth money 
from a Baltimore audience." The bishop, ho^^ever, never had occa- 
sion to complain of the meagerness of the Baltimore dinners : "I 
dined in company with several of the preachers, perhaps all of them, 
at Brother ]^ewman's. The company was, of course, agreeable, but 
was the time profitably spent? I fear not. What can be done to 
make these social interviews more religious ? By making them more 
intellectual and more spiritual they would become more profitable. 
But who will introduce such a measure ? The dinner was too profuse 
for Christians." 

Mr. "Waugh, having become a bishop after the order of Asbury, 
could not rest at home, and accordingly in the interval of his Confer- 
ences he was found during this winter making a tour among the 
Churches of the Maryland and Delaware peninsula. The so-called 
Reform movement, which resulted in the organization of the Methodist 
Protestant Church, had sorely rent the old Church in this favored field 
of its earlier triumphs. Amid these onerous labors he took the most 
discouraging view of his efforts : " Alas ! alas ! how much cause there 
is for me to be cast down. ... I consider my services since I left 
home to have been of too much worthlessness to justify either the 
labor of performing or the pain of attending on them. . . . O that I 
may also be humbled ! " A little seci'et connected with his election to 
the episcopacy came to his eyes about this time, which, if known at tlie 
time of his election, might have led him to decline the office : ''If I 
had heard of the same before my ordination, I had in all probability 
never known the perplexities and responsibilities with which the 
remnant of my days must be more or less familiar, unless, indeed, I 
resign my present relation to the Church. . . . May I never feel 
toward any man any thing but love, even when I have been misrepre- 
sented, not to say slandered ! " 



248 Methodist Bishops. 

After Ills return from the eastern shore of ]\Iaryland he made a 
short visit to Washington, D. C. There he preached, heard Mr. Clay, 
of Kentucky, in his great speech on the Bank Deposits, visited his 
brother Townshend, and met in social intercourse distinguished per- 
sons. •'• There are several members of our Church in Congress, with, 
I fear, very little benefit either to themselves or us." He was now 
anticipating quiet with his family for the rest of the winter, when he 
was immediately obliged, on account of Bishop Andrew's illness, to 
attend tlie session of the Virginia Conference, at Petersburgh, Ya. 
A very successful missionary meeting, at which §1,500 were contrib- 
uted, was the chief feature of this session. A record appears in 
his journal, February 23d, which probably shows the origin of what are 
now known as the bishops' semi-annual meetings: ''I this day was 
employed in writing to my colleagues, with a view to uniform admin- 
istration of the Discipline. How desirable and how expedient an 
annual meeting of the superintendents would be, if it were practi- 
cable I "' The facilities of travel have rendered such a meeting j)rac- 
ticable ; and now the semi-annual meetings of the board of bishops 
have become distinctive events of our ecclesiastical year. 

In the spring of 1837 Bishop TTaugh presided over the Baltimore 
Conference instead of Bishop Andrew, who had been detained, and 
immediately at its close hastened to the Philadelphia Conference. He left 
a sick wife and sick children at home, and was much depressed in body 
and mind : " But what were all these to an itinerant bishop ! I reached 
Philadelphia cold and hungry, for I could not think of paying seventy- 
five cents for dinner on the boat." Of the Conference he says, ^' The 
business progresses very well. . . . Committees ! Committees ! Was 
there ever any thing like the number and size of the Philadelphia 
committees ? " His next Conference was the Xew Jersey, at JS^ewark. 
Thence he went to the Xew York, at Brooklyn. Here he found some 
difficulty in moderating the feelings between the abolition and anti- 
abohtion parties, but more in making the apjDointments. " O, these 
committees ! AY ill they not break up the itinerant ministry ? I fear." 

His next presidency was that of the Xew England Conference, at 
Xantucket, Mass. Because of the intense antislavery feeling prevail- 
ing in that body, he looked forward to its session with unusual solicitude. 
On reaching the seat of the Conference (June 6th) he was immediately 



Beverly Waugh. 249 

waited upon bj a committee of tlie antislaverj society of the Confer- 
ence, and asked if lie would allow memorials to be presented on tlie sub- 
ject of slavery ^ He requested time for consideration, and called together 
some of the older and more conservative ]Dreachers for consultation. At 
his suggestion a deputation conferred with the antislavery brethren, and 
uro^ed their consent to attend to the business embraced in the memori- 
als in their capacity as an antislavery society, and not to bring it into 
the Conference. They declined, and in a very respectful pa23er 
addressed to the bishop, insisted upon their right to have the Confer- 
ence in its regular sessions act upon the memorials. The bishop, in an 
equally respectful and well guarded communication, replied that he 
should be obliged, on disciplinary and other grounds, to deny the right 
claimed. Notwithstanding this assurance the antislavery men perse- 
vered, and brought the matter to an issue in open session by reading 
several memorials, and moving their reference to a special committee. 
The bishop ruled the motion out of order, and gave his reasons quite 
at length. In closing his address he said, " And now, brethren and 
fellow-laborers, allow me most affectionately to address you for a 
moment or two. I repeat, that I very much regret the necessity which 
has urged me to this decision ; but I beg you to believe that in the best 
light which I have been able to obtain, it became my imperious duty 
to take this ground. Let not this produce any unpleasant personal 
feeling toward each other. I not only can, but I do, believe that you 
are most conscientious in the course you have adopted. Let us be 
lovers one of another, and still prosecute our calling and work." . . . 
At the conclusion of these remarks the Conference proceeded quietly 
to the regular business, and before the close of the session, on motion 
of " two leading abolitionist brethren," he was thanked for his " digni- 
fied, able, and impartial 23residency," and invited " to visit them when it 
might be practicable." Bishop Waugh was favored with the compan- 
ionship and counsel of Bishop Hedding at this Conference. They left 
ISTantucket together, and visited Father Taylor, of the Mariners' Church, 
Boston. 

Thence he went eastward to hold the Maine Conference at Hallo- 
well, Me. . The Sabbath intervening was spent at Portland. " This is 
a handsome place. I preached ... as they call it here, all day, in 
the Methodist church. . . . Here they have an organ to assist their 



250 Methodist Bishops. 

devotions. It is the iirst Methodist church in the United States in 
which an organ is placed. May it be the last ! If, indeed, instrumental 
mnsic mnst obtain, I would prefer the organ to any other instrument ; 
but I think the fruit of the lips and the feeling of the heart may very 
well answer to this part of the worship of God." He was pleased with 
the Maine Conference : " If the spirit of abolitionism does not injui'e 
it, this Conference will soon be one among our best Conferences." 
After the adjournment of the Conference he immediately returned to 
Baltimore, and the ensuing smnmer and autumn he was absorbed in 
visiting various camp-meetings and Churches. 

Amid all these official cares it is well to take a peep into the bishop's 
inward life : " This day (Sept. 29th) I observed as a day of solemn fast- 
ing and prayer. It was to me a day of great humiliation, and I trust 
of lasting profit. I was enabled to mourn and lament before a just 
God, and to pray and plead with a merciful Saviour. I humbly trust 
that this will be to me the beginning of a new era in my Christian 
experience. that my soul may be fully sanctified ! and may it be 
hereafter my single aim to please God ! " 

Bishop Waugh made another tour to the "Peninsula," during the 
winter of 1837, landing at Cambridge, Md., and going as far south as 
the lowest village of Northampton, Ya., and visited parts where they 
had never before seen a Methodist bishop. He spent, in all, thii-ty- 
three days, and preached on an average once a day. He was also active 
on the western shore of Maryland, and in the District of Columbia. 
The winter over, we find him assisting Bishop Morris at the Balti- 
more, and Bishop Hedding at the Philadelphia Conferences. In con- 
nection with the session of the latter Conference an opinion occurs in 
his journal which was afterward embodied in the legislation of the 
Church, but which after a few years' trial was abandoned : " I hope 
that the next General Conference will fix a limit beyond which we may 
not continue a preacher in the same city, no matter how many charges 
it may contain, otherwise it may come to pass that the same man may 
be stationed in one city for life, and what sort of an itinerancy would 
this be ? This is a point which should be well looked to." 

In May, 1838, the first mention is made of the meeting of the 
bishops. "Thursday, 24:th, the superintendents met an hour this 
morning before the Conference (]N'ew York) opened. ... At my 



Beverly Waugh. 251 

instance Brother Fisk * was invited to meet with ns, whicii he did, bnt 
he did not express definitely his determination in regard to his accept- 
ance of the office to which he was elected at the last General Confer- 
ence. Brother Andrew and myself expressed to him, in the presence 
of Bishops Soule and Morris, our desire that he would come out, if 
his health admitted of it. Bishop Hedding had then left for Confer- 
ence. I do not know wdiether Brother Fisk is waiting to be called out 
by the unanimous voice of all the superintendents, or for some other 
contingency. All the bishops except Bishop Roberts were present at 
this first meeting, and it was resolved to hold another, Ajoril, 1839, in 
Philadelphia." 

July 11, 1838, the bishop took leave of his family for a tour of the 
western Conferences. At Cadiz, 0., he met the Pittsburgh. Tarrying 
at Wheeling oVer Sabbath en route for this Conference, he preached in 
the morning, and heard the Rev. Professor Simpson (now Bishop) at 
night. His estimate of the sermon was not very high : "It was only a 
tolerable performance." When Maurice, of !N"assau, was reproached by 
the old generals and advisers of his father, William, that he was only a 
sapling, he quickly retorted, "But the sapling shall grow into a tree." 
The session of the Pittsburgh Conference closed, Bishop Waugh passed 
rapidly through eastern Ohio, touching at Canton, Akron, and Hudson, 
and noticing every-where " the blighting effect of abolitionism," and 
came to Painesville, where he met the Erie Conference. From Paines- 
ville he went to Cleveland : " There has been a large business done here, 
and in time it will be a large city. There are about seven or eight 
thousand inhabitants, and some good-looking houses. The Methodist 
Society here is small and without much influence, and withal, it is in 
a divided state." His route was still westward to Tiffin, where he 
presided over the Michigan Conference. At Tiffin he was made at 
home with old friends from Maryland who had settled there. Here he 
heard a sermon at night from another of the future strong men of 
Methodism : " One of unique character, full of fancy and very senti- 
mental, by Dr. Thomson. How he would tickle the ears of a New York 
or Baltimore congregation ! He is a preacher of great originality." 

The Ohio Conference, at Columbus, was his next point. He 
preached on Sunday morning, September 30, and ordained twenty 

♦The Rev. Wilbur Fisk, D.D. 



252 Methodist Bishops. 

deacons : " Brother Trimble preaclied at night. There were many 
mourners at the altar. ... I was pleased with the zeal of the 
preachers. / The anniversary of the missionary meeting was good. 
. . . Brother Hamline made a splendid address on the occasion." 
On October 6th he reached Cincinnati, and fomid '' a cordial wel- 
come" with his ''old friend Eeeyes." On the 11th he set ont, in 
company witli Bishop Morris and two others, in a private carriage 
" kindly loaned by Brother Xe:^," for Danville, Ky., where he met 
the Kentucky Conference. He found this Conference composed of 
about one hundred effective preachers, several of whom he '' estimated 
as among the best of our preachers in any of the Conferences." He 
was obliged to wrestle a little with slavery : " 1 found great apathy 
on the subject of slavery, and had to watch closely the movement of 
the Conference on these questions. I gave them to understand that 
I could not ordain any slave-holder in Kentucky, because the laws of 
the State admit of emancipation, and also permit the emancipated 
person to enjoy freedom under certain limitations. One of the trav- 
eling and one of the local preachers were required to execute a bill 
of emancipation before I would agree to ordain them, although the 
Conference had not required this in order to their election. They 
believed me when I said, I was in sentiment and in habit antislavery, 
and that I was not less antiabolitionist." 

From the Kentucky Conference he hastened home as fast as the 
stage-coaches would take him. The following spring he was greatly 
troubled and perplexed, so much so that under date of Aj^ril 7, 
1839, while attending the Philadelphia Conference, he writes : 
"Who is sufficient for the duties, privations, and labors of a gen- 
eral superintendency of the Methodist Episcopal Church? Certainly 
not I. For several months past I have been seriously exercised on 
the subject of resigning my office at the General Conference. May 
the Lord direct and overrule me in this and in every other step!" 
During the spring months he attended the bishops' meeting, at 
Philadelphia ; assisted in organizing plans in Baltimore for the 
observance of the centenary of Methodism ; and presided over the 
Kew Jersey, j^ew York, Xew England, and Maine Conferences. 

Friday, October 25th, was his fiftieth birthday, and also the day 
set apart for the general celebration of the "Centenary." He had 



Beverly Waugh. 253 

been invited to preach the Centenary Sermon, at Light-street, but, 
pai'tly from the expectation that he might be called away to attend 
the Ilolston Conference, and partly from a " withering apprehen- 
sion " that he might fail to measure up to the occasion, he declined : 
"I was criminally fearful of criticism from both friends and foes." 
. . . "I have had much conflict with Satan and my own heart for 
some weeks past, and I pray that it may end in a great victory." 
The bishop was much cheered the ensuing winter by the prevalence 
of a general revival of religion in Baltimore. He participated very 
actively in the woi'k at Light-street, in which the Rev. Francis 
Hodgson, then of the 'New York Conference, was mainly instru- 
mental : " The conversions in the general have not been powerful, 
yet, having conversed with many, I have no reason to doubt their 
genuineness, except that they seem not to have the witness of the 
Spirit. Li this respect it differs from any great revival I have ever 
witnessed among us." 

The General Conference convened in Baltimore on the 1st of 
May, 1840. The Bishop says, in reference to it : "I had feared 
much for the results of this Conference, but I think it closed with 
more harmony of views and feelings than the last Conference, four 
years since, did. There were five new Conferences formed, but no 
additional superintendent. This will make hard work for the pres- 
ent superintendents, especially for the three younger ones. We 
have planned our work and divided it among ourselves. ... I have 
a tour of perhaps from six to seven thousand miles to make : from 
this to the north of Illinois, thence south through the State to Mis- 
souri and Arkansas, and finally to Texas ; for we are to have an 
Annual Conference in Texas. It will take me from my family 
about seven months ! hard on me, harder on them ! but what of 
these if Methodism is to be spread over these lands ? " The General 
Conference had come ; the disheartened bishop not only did not re- 
sign, but his faltering courage seems to have been renewed. He was 
charmed at this Conference with the presence of the Rev. Robert 
ISTewton, fraternal delegate from the English Wesley ans, and heartily 
approved the appointment of Bishop Soule, with the Rev. T. B. 
Sargent for traveling companion, as fraternal delegate from the 
Methodist Episcopal Church to the Wesleyan Conference of England. 



254 Methodist Bishops. 

The time for leaving on his long tour had come : ^'August ttth, 
after weeping before God with such feelings as could only be intel- 
ligible to that Being who sees not as man seeth," he parted with his 
family and started for the north-west, going by way of Philadelphia 
and Kew York. He gratified himself with a look at JS^iagara Falls ; 
" too deeply impressed with the sublimity of the scene to attempt 
a description." He passed a Sunday at Detroit, Mich., and thence 
went on to ]\Iarshall, where he presided over the Michigan Confer- 
ence. From Marshall he rode across the State of Michigan, and on 
the lake he "took a miserable boat, without a redeeming quality," 
by which he came to Chicago. Here, on Sunday, August 23d, he 
preached in the morning in the Methodist, and in the evening in 
the Presbyterian Church : " The Methodist meeting-house here is 
small, but there was apparently an intelligent audience present. . . . 
Monday, August 24th, we left Chicago at day-break. This place 
did not meet my expectations altogether. It had not the business 
air which I expected. . . . jSTevertheless, it is a growing place, and 
will in time be a city of some note." He proceeded over the prai- 
ries — "not a tree or shrub was to be seen. . . . Men, women, and 
children looking sickly, poorly fed and clothed, and worse lodged 
in miserable cabins, not fit to house cattle in " — until he reached 
" Squire Hitt's," near Mount Morris. At a camp-meeting in a grove 
about a mile away he organized the Pock Piver Conference Au-' 
gust 26th : " The Conference met in a log-pen three hundred yards 
from the encampment. ... It was about twelve feet by eighteen, built 
somewhat in the form of a shed. The lower side was five logs high, 
the upper, about seven. The logs were rough and crooked, and, 
where the openings were from eight to ten inches between the logs, 
they were partially closed by putting in a smaller log or split timber. 
There was a long opening for the entrance, but no door to close it 
after we had entered. Several portions of an old roof were laid over 
the top, which might nearly have been called a flat roof, and in 
this pen, open on all sides, and at the top, too, as we soon found 
by the entering rain, we commenced and progressed with the busi- 
ness of the Conference. . . . This, in time, will be an interesting 
Conference. The spirit of the brethren is patient and kind. The 
preachers are very poorly supported on their circuits, but I never 



Beverly Waugh. 2o5 

heard a single complaint." Forty years only have elapsed, and Chi- 
cago has 500,000 j)opnlation, and the Rock River Conference hun- 
dreds of preachers and thousands of raembers, and they worship in 
substantial edifices, and their sons and daughters have access to a 
noble university! Such has been the growth of Methodism. Such 
the foundations which were laid by our. early bishops. 

Many are the instructive and even naive remarks dropped by 
the bishop on his tour through Illinois. Of one place where he 
stopped this is a sample : " They could not be prevailed upon to 
take any thing, saying they were glad we had called on them. 
What a combination of Christian kindness and dirtiness was here ! " 
Here is another : '' Here I found a good mattress to lie on in a neat 
bed-chamber. What a luxury to one in my circumstances ! " 

During September and October Bishop Waugh presided over the 
Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas Conferences, and preached before the 
Legislature and State officers of the last-named State. Speaking of 
the slaves on his way down to 'New Orleans, he says : " But disguise 
it as we may, slavery is a bitter pill and a great evil. But will not 
ultimate great good result by the overrulings of a wise and beneficent 
Providence ? " 

From N'ew Orleans he crossed the Gulf of Mexico to Galveston, 
Texas. Here he was met by the Rev. T. O. Summers, formerly of 
the Baltimore Conference, who was stationed at Galveston, and who 
became his traveling companion while he was in Texas. December 
19th, he writes : " We had about forty miles to Austin. It came 
on to rain about the time we started, but we continued to travel 
on through rain, mud, and wet. Covered with mud, and hungry 
and fatigued, we came to Austin about dark, and put up at the prin- 
cipal boarding house in the place. . . . Here we were in the midst of 
the assembled wisdom and valor of Hhe Republic with one star.' 
Senators, judges, lawyers, majors, colonels, generals, together with 
ministers plenipotentiary, and even a nuncio from his holiness the 
Pope, formed the circle into which we had now entered." He was 
invited to open the House of Representatives of the national Congress 
with prayer, and was ti'eated with much courtesy. At Rutersville he 
met the preachers who were engaged in the Texas work. " Decem- 
ber 25th. This day we organized the Texas Conference. Our begin- 



256 Methodist Bishops. 

ning was small indeed — there being only nine members ; yet shall this 
Conference continue and increase until this land shall abound with 
the fruits of Methodism." He left Texas very hopeful of its political 
and religious future. The Methodist Episcopal Church already 
included nearly two thousand members, and was the leading de- 
nomination. He arrived in Baltimore, January 7, 1841. " How 
thankful," he writes, " I am to get back safely, . . . and to find all 
my family alive and well. O for gratitude deep, warm, and abiding ! " 

The remainder of the winter, and the spring and summer of 18-11 
passed, and no record of presiding at Conferences occurs. October 
19th he attended the Tennessee Conference, at Clarksville, Tennessee. 
Then followed the Memphis Conference, at Memphis, and the Mis- 
sissippi, at ]S'ew Orleans. At the last he says : " I gave some heavy 
blows to cotton-growing and land-speculating preachers. I do not 
think it was relished by some who heard it. In the evening there 
were a number of converts — a new thing in Kew Orleans." Thence 
he turned eastward, and held the Alabama Conference, at Mobile ; the 
Georgia Conference, at Milledgeville, Ga. ; and the South Carolina 
Conference, at Charlotte, N. C. After this Conference, in company 
with Rev. E. S. Janes, Financial Agent of the American Bible Society, 
he traveled north. By stage or wagon, over rough and muddy roads, 
the two pursued their way — the vehicle sometimes needing an extra 
team to drag it out of the mud, and once upset — until they reached 
Raleigh, N. C. February 6, 1812, he was once more at home. 

In the spring of 1812 Bishop Waugh was present at the Baltimore 
Conference, over which Bishop Soule presided. He then held all Bishop 
Soule's Conferences, in addition to his own, while Bishoj) Soule was 
absent in Europe. This led him to preside over the Philadel-phia, 
'New Jersey, Providence, I^ew York, New England, and Maine Con- 
ferences in rapid succession. The camp-meeting season over, and with 
but two days to get ready, he was again off for an autumn tour of 
three months, during which he held the Kentucky, Holstou, Xorth 
Carolina, and Virginia Conferences, traveling most of the time by 
carriage roads. Amono^ the items of interest on this tour is his 
account of meeting a grandniece of the celebrated Patrick Henry, 
and seeing the place, near Ealeigh, N. C, where, Mr. Asbury and Dr. 
Coke held a Conference soon after the organization of the Methodist 



Beverly Waugii. 257 

Episcopal Clmrcli. The ensuing winter was spent at home, but work- 
ing all the while. June 4, 1843, he was, for the second time, at the 
Troy Conference, which he notes "has more than doubled since 1836." 
He tarried a Sunday in Troy after the adjournment of Conference, 
and preached at one of the principal churches. He afterward held 
the New Hampshire, Black River, Oneida, and Genesee Conferences, 
and resting a few days at Saratoga Springs, returned to Baltimore. 

October 24th, his fifty-fifth birthday, he exclaims : " Startling 
fact ! I am verging on toward old age. And are ray palmiest days 
numbered ? to Avhat little purpose have I lived ! . . . On my part 
I see nothing of which there is not cause to blush before God on 
account of what I am and what I do. And yet, the goodness of 
God ! I see on his part nothing but mercy and grace." His self- 
depreciatory views are further seen in a later entry : " January 28, 
1844, I went to church with much prayer and some hope that I 
should be assisted and blessed. But it was otherwise. Left to my- 
self, what could my weakness do ? Nothing but exhibit itself. For 
myself it is of but small concern, but the cause of Methodism — the 
cause of religion — what ought not to be felt on their account ! Still 
will I hope for better times. It is, indeed, late in the day for much 
promise, but when will pot an effort well meant and honestly put 
forth receive the blessing of God ? When I have less reliance on self 
I may have more on God, and his blessing will give success." Only 
one more record appears on the bishop's journal before the session of 
the noted General Conference of 1844, and after that, none until 
November 11th. He then writes : " More than eight months have 
elapsed since an entry was made in' the journal. Not because they 
have 'passed away without incident. No — they have been painfully 
prolific of events which will constitute an unwelcome era in the 
history of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The unpleasantness of 
tliese occurrences has prevented a minute record of them ; and if they 
could become oblivious by this failure to note them, there would now 
appear no record in this place to let it be known hereafter that they 
ever transpired in our history." He proceeds briefly to recite the 
action of the General Conference at New York in the cases of the 
Rev. Francis A. Harding and of Bishop Andrew, and tlien adds : — 

"After the final adjournment of the General Conference, on the 



258 Methodist Bishops. 

next day, Bishops Soiile, Hedding, Morris, Hamline, Janes, and my- 
self, met to arrange tlie plan of episcopal visitation for the ensuing 
four years. Bishop Andrew, althongh aware of snch an arrangement 
in conformity with established nsage, had left for Georgia without 
expressing his wish or purpose in regard to the plan. When the ques- 
tion arose in regard to the partition of the work, whether we should 
include him in the division of the oversight. Bishops Hedding, 
Morris, and myself thought, as the General Conference had clearly 
intended to throw the whole responsibility of acting in his official 
character on Bishop Andrew alone, and as he was not present to speak 
for himself and had not sio^niiied his desire or intention in relation 
thereto, we could not see our way clear to put his name in our plan, 
or to apportion any part of the work to him. In this opinion, I think, 
Bishop Hamline also concurred ; but as well as I recollect, Bishop 
Janes did not express an opinion, for as he was avowed by the 
Southern delegates to be of their nomination, I was desirous that he 
should not express himself on any question which might involve him 
with the South. Bishop Soule was favorable to giving Bishop 
Andrew a portion of the oversight. . . . "We proceeded to arrange 
our plan without his name. It was, however, agreed by us all, that 
should Bishop Andrew make a written demand for his portion of the 
general oversight he should have it, and accordingly a second plan 
was made out, having his name appended to a due proportion of all 
the Conferences, which was left in the hands (I think) of Bishop 
Soule, to be published as superseding our first plan whenever the 
written application of Bishop Andrew should be received, which 
letter was to be published in connection with the plan, so as to show 
that we had not assumed any part of the responsibility which we 
believed the General Conference had devolved on Bishop Andrew." 

As indicative of Bishop Waugh's own feelings he says, " It is need- 
less to record, even if I could, the great afflictions which I have felt 
in this unfortunate case. It has pressed alm^ost without alleviation on 
my heart day and night. . . . What will be the final issue, what 
mortal can tell ? Alas ! alas ! that I have lived to see these things, 
without ability or influence to remedy the fearful evils which rage and 
threaten to drive asunder those whose union has been to a great de- 
gree their strength. . . . Perhaps a sifting was needed more than we 



Beveely AVaugh. 259 

liad been wont to suppose, and the time and the circumstances liave 
come which will try men's hearts and develop them to the Church 
and the world." ISTo further reference is made to this embarrassing 
topic until January 2, 1853. "I^early eight years have elapsed since 
I made my last entry. . . . The principal cause is to be found in the 
division of the Methodist Episcopal Church by the secession of the 
Southern and South-western Conferences, and their formation into 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. This so much afflicted and 
distressed me that I could not bring myself to the task of recording it. 
I mourned it then — I mourn it now. I am fully persuaded it was 
\vrong and productive of great evil. It may be overruled, and good 
may be educed from it by Him ' who worketh all things after the 
counsel of his own will.' . . . Although the prospects before us are 
not without some haze, either in Church or State, yet, praise be given 
to God, in both they are more promising than in 1845, when I made 
my last entry." Since the death of Bishop Hedding, April 9, 1852, 
Bishop Waugh had been senior bishop of the Church ; and owing to 
Bishop Hedding's protracted sickness, and the sickness and resignation 
of Bishop Hamline, he and Bishops Morris and Janes had to perform 
herculean labors until, in 1852, they were re-enforced by the election 
of Bishops Scott, Simpson, and Ames. 

The entries in his journal now grow less and less frequent. 
August 5, 1856, he writes, with hand very plain and light, but not 
so firm and precise as heretofore : " I did not fail, however, to attend 
all my Conferences ; nor have I failed to attend every Conference as- 
signed to me for the last twenty years, besides a number of those of my 
colleagues. I make this record with gratitude to my heavenly Father 
for his preserving care. If I had attended to every other duty with 
as much fidelity as has marked ray attendance of my Conferences, how 
much better I should have heen and how much better I should have 
done I So that I feel that while I have cause of great gratitude to 
God for all his benefits to me, I have cause to pray, God be merciful 
to me, an unfaithful and unprofitable servant ! " 

Here the journal ends ; and all too soon the life of which it was 
the faithful, though inadequate transcript, was to end. A corre- 
spondent of the " ITorth-western Christian Advocate," writing from 

the seat of the Detroit Conference, September 19, 185Y, alludes to an 
16 



260 Methodist Bishops. 

impressive address delivered bj the bishop at the opening of the 
session, in which, after an appeal for earnest preaching, he made some 
personal references, and closed with the hope that he might "lay down 
his life with his charge, and cease at once to work and live." This 
was about the last, if not the very last, Conference over which he 
presided, and the wish there expressed was destined to be literally 
fulfilled. 

He returned to Baltimore, and spent the time, as was his custom 
when at home, in agreeable social intercourse, and in frequent visits to 
the Churches. He could rarely resist an appeal from any source for 
help, and accordingly, in the dead of winter, although at the time very 
feeble in body, he yielded to a request from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 
where a great revival was in progress, to visit that borough. He 
reached the town on the 23d of January and remained several days, 
preaching every day, besides entering with zeal into all the meetings. 
On the last evening the pastor, the Rev. ~R. D. Chambers, requested 
him to address the young converts, and at an early hour about one 
hundred persons came forward, and he spoke to them upon Christian 
duty. Among other things he said, '• as he stood before them with 
Avhitened locks and trembling limbs, he felt happy in looking forward 
to the period (which he was confident was not far off) when the great 
Shepherd of souls would bestow upon him the reward provided in the 
gospel of the grace of God. He could testify to the fact that religion 
would comfort and sustain the possessor in the midst of the trials and 
sufferings of life." It was proposed to relieve him from further 
services that evening ; but on taking his seat he remarked, " I greatly 
prefer preaching," and again he arose and preached on Acts xvi, 30 : 
" Sirs, what must I do to be saved ? " " The delivery of the dis- 
course," says Mr. Chambers, " the last one which fell from his lips, 
occupied just one hour. It was remarkable to witness the power with 
which he preached. His soul seemed to be under an unusual unction 
from on high. God was evidently crowning with triumph the close 
of a long and useful life. . . . From the pulpit he proceeded to the 
altar, entreating sinners to seek salvation. Seeing his physical pros- 
tration, ... I proposed to accompany him to his lodgings. He re- 
plied that he felt very much fatigued, but he preferred staying among 
those who were seeking salvation until the services closed. He mani- 



Beverly Waugii. 261 

fested deep interest in the welfare of those who were at the altar, 
sometimes kneeling at their side and giving a word of instruction." 

Immediately on his return to Baltimore he was seized with the 
illness of which he had had premonitory symptoms at Carlisle. The 
disease assumed the form of erysipelas. After the lapse of a week he 
was thought to be better, and hopes were entertained of his ultimate 
recovery. His intimate friends were freely admitted to his room, one 
of whom, tlie Kev. Isaac P. Cook, writes me, '' I saw him in his last 
illness, happy in God, death not expected. His face was discolored to 
arrest erysipelas. Others mourned ; I made him smile by saying, ' You 
must get well You do not look like my pretty bishop. ' " This was 
Sunday, February 7th. The next morning he was so improved as to 
assist in the family devotions, Mrs. Waugh reading the Scriptures, while 
he, lying in bed, offered the prayer. During the day he was able to 
walk about the room. At night he retired at the usual hour. Soon after 
a member of the family heard his well-known voice in prayer. " She 
listened, and heard him pleading, in low and earnest tones, first, for the 
Church of Jesus Christ ; then for the missionary cause, beseeching God 
to raise up men and women for this great work, and to put it into the 
hearts of the Churches and congregations to give the cause their 
liberal support ; he then, in a tone and manner that cannot be ex- 
pressed, commended his wife and family to God's fatherly protection 
and heavenly goodness ; then his voice became lower and more quiet 
as he commended himself to his heavenly Father ; and thus ceasing 
he lay quietly as in a sleep." About ten o'clock he was heard to utter 
a groan, as though in sharp pain. His wife, supposing that he was 
seized with a paroxysm of the stomach and heart, tried to turn him. 
He said to her, " N^ever mind, my dear." These were the last words 
he spoke. The family physician was sent for, and he hastened to his 
bedside, but the venerable patient was already dead. 

Bishop Waugh passed thus peacefully to the heavenly rest at one 
o'clock on the morning of February 9, 1858, in the sixty-eighth year 
of his age. He was for fifty-four years a member, for forty-seven years 
a minister, and for twenty-two years a bishop of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church. His funeral services took place in the presence of a vast 
throng of people of all denominations, in old Light-street Church, on 
"Wednesday, February 11th. Bishop Janes delivered the memorial 



262 Methodist Bishops. 

sermon, founded npon Acts vi, 2, 5, 8 ; vii, 55, 56, 59, 60 ; and viii, 2. 
His remains were buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery, near the dust of 
Asburj, Emory, and others of the sainted dead of Methodism. 

American Methodism may have had greater men than Bishop 
Waugh, but never a better one. His piety was a living fire, which 
burned on steadily with increasing light and heat unto the close of 
life. His zeal was fervent without the slightest mixture of fanaticism 
or bigotry. There was nothing in his opinions and bearing which 
either repelled the better educated or chilled the lowly and illiterate. 
Wherever he moved he attracted all eyes by his dignity, and won all 
hearts by his modesty. Little children loved him. Nothing was 
more common in his visits where there were children than to see 
him caressing them in the most playful and familiar way. He 
possessed, in a rare degree, the gift of introducing religion into 
ordinary conversation, and of drawing into wholesome and judicious 
talk all with whom he chanced to meet. His power in prayer was 
simply marvelous. In public assemblies, when called upon to lead 
the devotions, he would pour forth a stream of adoration, thanks- 
giving, and supplication, which would impress every mind as exactly 
fitted to the occasion, and which seemed to gather up and express 
the thoughts and aspirations of every worshiper present. As an 
administrator of law he was firm without harshness, and pliant with- 
out weakness. In things indifferent — ^in all things so long as argu- 
ment ?md persuasion could be used — he was gentle, patient, and 
yielding ; but when reason had been exhausted, and action was needed, 
he was prompt in execution, and in his decisions he was as immovable 
as the rocks. His preaching was plain and evangelical, dealing 
almost wholly with the cardinal truths of religion. If the introduc- 
tions to his sermons were sometimes tedious, and the discussions 
seemingly involved — caused, most likely by a natural timidity never 
wholly conquered — his applications of the word were always pertinent 
and forcible, and the conclusions of his sermons oftentimes over- 
whelming in their popular effects. He aimed to be a useful rather 
than a great preacher, and this desire, which controlled him as to his 
preaching, was uppermost in his life. He lived to do good. 




W'^fc ■TM(n)W3M Ac J^I(n)IEj£IIl o 



////y' />/' ///• - .-[a/A'-Zj 






Thomas Asbury Morris. 



BY REV. TIIEODOEE L. FLOOD, D.D. 



THOMAS A. MOERIS was elected to fill the office of a bishop 
in the Methodist Episcopal Churcli after he had served for 
twenty years as pastor, presiding elder, and editor of the "AYestern 
Christian Advocate." He was forty-two years old at the time of 
his election. Thirty-six years he w^as connected with the Chnrch as 
a bishop, and sixteen years of this time he held the relation to his 
colleagues and t^ie Church of senior bishop. "When he entered upon 
the duties of his new position there were five other bishops asso- 
ciated with him in the episcopal supervision of the Church : Robert 
R. Roberts, Joshua Soule, Elijah Hedding, James O. Andrew, and 
Beverly Waugh. Bishop Morris was the junior in this list, and he 
outlived them all. Bishops Emory and M'Kendree died the year 
before Bishop Morris was elected. 

Bishop Morris saw seven men raised to the distinction of the 
bishopric after his election, and then saw them fall by death before 
his own hour of departure came. They were : Leonidas L. Hamline, 
Osmon C. Baker, Francis Burns, Davis W. Clark, Edward Thomson, 
Calvin Kingsley, and John W. Roberts. 

Two years previous to Bishop Morris's death the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church had grown to such proportions, numerically, and had been 
established in so many different countries, that the work of the gen- 
eral superintendency became burdensome, and the ej)iscopal force was 
from necessity increased to twelve bishops besides himself : Edmund 
S. Janes, Levi Scott, Matthew Simj^son, Edward R. Ames, Thomas 
Bowman, "William L. Harris, Randolph S. Foster, Isaac W. Wilej^, 
Stephen M. Merrill, Edward Gr. Andrews, Gilbert Haven, and Jesse 
T. Peck. Three of these have already been gathered to their fathers. 

Bishop Morris outhved his generation, and became the connect- 
ing lihk between the old and the new. He saw customs and usages 
which were deemed sacred among the members of the Church of his 



260 ^ Methodist Bishops. 

early days become obsolete, and witnessed tbe setting in of a new 
order of things. A man who 23assed tlirougli sucb a remarkable expe- 
rience among his associates in an office to which bnt few men were 
called, must, in the nature of things, have had an exceptional expe- 
rience, and his life-story must have a peculiar charm for people who 
love the true and the good. <- ' , 

Thomas A. Morris was born April 28, 1794, in Kanawha County, 
Ta., five miles above Charlestown, on the west side of the Kanawha 
Kiver. John Morris, his father, was a native of Culpeper County, 
and his mother, Margaret Morris, was born in Augusta County. 
They settled with the first band of pioneers who located on the 
Kanawha Eiver, about the year 1TS5. They endured the perils of an 
Indian war previous to Wagner's treaty of 1795. Some of their land 
was used for a cemetery, where many of their neighbors and friends 
who were slain by the Indians were buried. Thomas was one of 
eleven children, eight of whom married in early life. Their parents 
experienced the saving grace of God, and, after living together 
forty years, died peacefully in the same year, 1818, full of hope 
that they would sj)end a happy immortality in the mansions of 
heaven. 

Triien Thomas was three years old he was deeply impressed by the 
death of his sister Frances, and that of his maternal grandmother. 
These were losses which he seemed to feel at that early age, and they 
exerted a favorable influence upon his early life. 

At seven years of age he led the ordinary life of country boys on 
the farm — using the hoe, holding the plow, gathering sheaves in har- 
vest, tramping the hay in the mow, and swinging the ax ; when ten 
years old, in the wild woods, clearing new land to be cultivated, and 
guarding the flocks from wolves and other wild beasts, which were 
numerous, acquiring a strength of body and calmness of judgment 
which aided him in the life of labor which was to follow. 

The . opportunities for the education of children in the north-west- 
ern part of Yirginia, where Mr. Morris resided, were limited. The cus- 
tom obtained of holding three months of school during the year in the 
winter season. This was taught by such teachers as could be procured 
— competent or incompetent — only so the school was kept in motion. 
The branches taught were spelling, reading, writing, and ciphering to 



Thomas Asbury Morris. 267 

the rule of three. At eighteen Thomas entered a grammar class in 
a school taught by Mr. William Paine, an English gentleman, who pos- 
sessed the reputation of being a line teacher, and with forty years' 
experience back of him he occuj^ied a good vantage-ground for doing 
his work. 

During these years at school Thomas developed a taste for educa- 
tion, and was finally j^ossessed of a conviction that the farm was not to 
be his field of labor. After spending about eight years with his father 
in this work he accepted an invitation from his brother Edmund, who 
held the clerkship of Cabell County, to come into the office and serve 
as his assistant. He was now nearly seventeen years old, teachable, 
and a willing worker ; he remained in the office for more than three 
years. The business transactions that passed under his notice, his 
intercourse with business and professional men, and the practical 
turn given to the action of his mind in keeping the records of the 
county, requiring accuracy and fidelity, developed traits of character 
in the young man which neither the farm nor school-room had yet 
evolved. One disadvantage arose from the radical change in his 
vocation. The sedentary habits he was obliged to adopt in connec- 
tion with office life disarranged his physical system, and generated 
a disease which followed him through life. It neutralized the courage 
and hope of hi^ soul ; he grew feeble in health, and very often was 
filled with suspicions and forebodings of death. His prospects in the 
future came under the shadow of this all-pervading fear, and this was 
followed by a loss of self-confidence, and the uprising of discourage- 
ments concerning his future life. 

While in the midst of this annoying experience he was drafted to 
serve with the militia . six months in a war with the British and 
Indians. Though only eighteen years old, there was no alternative 
but to obey his country's call. He took leave of his friends, but when 
on the second day's march from home, on his way to meet the enemy, 
his brother William overtook the company with a substitute, which his 
father had provided, who was placed in the ranks, and Thomas was 
released and returned home with his brother. 

He seems to have inherited an industrious habit of mind, which 
led him to think more seriously on his future calling for life when he 
returned from the militia movement, than he was inclined to at any 



268 Methodist Bishops. 

previous time. He returned to the office with his brother. It was 
here that his intercourse with the lawyers, and his observations in the 
court room, excited in him a desire to choose the law as his profession. 
He looked upon it as the highway to places of distinction, and there 
was a charm about it which shut out every other profession from his 
vision. But his natural diffidence, poverty, and a poor education, 
embarrassed him in the attempts he made to lay plans to enter upon a 
course of study in law. For months he was possessed of a purjjose to 
carry out his design and become a lawyer ; but his efforts to make the 
necessary preparation were failures, and he finally decided that he 
never could succeed, so he abandoned the purpose. We infer from 
his own writings that his extreme baslifulness, more than any thing 
else, detained him from choosing this profession, where self-confidence 
plays so prominent a part in its greatest achievements. 

His parents were members of the Baptist Church. They carefully 
instructed their cliildren to reverence God, to practice the outward 
duties of morality, and trained them to attend public worship ; but 
neglected to teach them the duty of prayer in childhood. Isov did 
they use any influence to lead them to adopt a religious course of life. 
They held the faith, " You must wait the Lord's good time." This 
view of religious duty seemed to neutralize all the other religious 
teachings Thomas received. 

There was a strange indifference on the part of not only ]\Ir. and 
Mrs. Morris, but of all church-going people in the community, in the 
observance of the Sabbath. It was used as a day of freedom ; business 
was not transacted, nor labor j)erformed, but the young people used 
the day for s]3orting, visiting, and receiving visitors. 

In his boyhood Thomas came under the influence of his father's 
hired men on the farm ; they hurt his moral character by their evil 
communications, and became his tutors in many of the vices and evil 
habits in vogue among the irreligious men of his times. One thing 
saved him in the midst of these perils — he had a natural affection for 
spiritual things. This was manifested in a sort of '' pious appearance," 
and he was fortunate in adopting good habits of life, so that his 
practice, outwardly at least, was in an opposite direction from the 
examples before him in his father's men. It was in his inner life 
ihat he experienced the injury done by these bad associations : wrong 



Thomas Asbuky Morris. 269 

tlionglits were excited, evil desires that might never have struggled in 
his soul were incited to life and action. One fortunate combination 
existed — his outward life won for him the confidence and esteem of 
the community, and this he valued so highly that he jealously guarded 
his moral character. 

Thomas adopted skeptical notions of the Bible, and used them as 
an excuse for neglecting a religious course of life. He did not 
venture to declare his skepticism publicly, because it had not put on a 
positive form in his own mind. His views of Christian people were 
helpful to his own final triumph over sin and its follies. He believed 
in the practical piety of the Church, but the remainder of the argu- 
ment, in his own judgment, was in favor of Christ and his salvation. 
When eighteen years old he witnessed the earthquakes of 1811 and 
1812 ; his fears were alarmed lest he should be lost, and w^liile in a 
state of excitement he found a place of comfort in a revival of relig- 
ion that was in progress among the Methodists. He knew but little 
about these people, though he had heard much to their disparagement. 
He commenced to attend their meetings with a strong prejudice 
against some of their customs. It w^as not long, however, before 
the excitement of their altar services, singing, praying, exhorting, 
preaching, and shouting, combined to impress his interested soul that 
he was in great need of a new heart and spirit. He formed a resolu- 
tion immediately to abandon the use of improper words. After 
pondering the subject for more than a year, he found one of the 
greatest difficulties confronting him was, to give up fashionable 
society, and adopt the plain attire and customs of the Methodist 
people. It was not until he was in his nineteenth year that he began 
to pray for mercy ; for six months it was his practice to pray in 
secret, all the time carefully concealing the fact from the public. 
He found this an embarrassing and unprofitable practice, because he 
labored under the impression that it would be best for him to openly 
acknowledge his convictions, choose religion, and make Christian 
people his companions. But he vacillated so long that his confidence 
grew weak, in his own ability to so seek God that he might obtain 
spiritual life. He attended a cam23-meeting, and heard the Hev. 
David Young preach a sermon on the parable of the sower, which 
produced such conviction in his mind that he began to pray in great 



270 Methodist Bishops. 

earnestness for pardon. Tlie training of his childhood created a strong 
att-achment for the Baptist Church, while the religious convictions he 
experienced through the Methodists enlisted his sym23athies for this 
people. lie was undecided, for a time, which Church he would make 
his spiritual home, but he finally determined to join the Methodist 
Episcopal Church as a probationer. This was in 1813, while he was 
yet seeking converting grace. 'Nine months passed away before he 
received a sense of pardon. It was when alone, in the clerk's office, 
while standing at his desk, and, singing — 

"O that day, when, freed from sinning, 
I shall see Thy lovely face, — 

tliat the Spirit shone into his heart, and imparted peace, love, and joy. 
I*Tow he knew he was saved. It was the way he " long had sought ; " 
now it was found and his soul w^as satisfied. While Thomas was 
an unexpected accession to the Methodist people, they gave him a 
hearty welcome, and soon assigned him to important Avork. They 
made him a class-leader while he was yet a probationer in the Church, 
and called on him to conduct meetings for prayer. He made his first 
exhortation before a meeting that was called for prayer on a Christ- 
mas-day, and preached his first sermon to a large promiscuous audience 
the same evening. He has not recorded in his diary any definite 
call from tlie Spirit to preach the gospel, though tlie evidence is both 
strong and abundant that he received such a call, and acted under the 
divine impulse in obeying the voice of the Church to fill the places 
of trust she assigned him. On February 1, 1814, without solicitation 
on his part, he received his first license to exhort. This he used to 
the credit of the Church, and did much good in his new office. These 
steps — and one more — had all been taken before he was baptized : he 
appeared before the Quarterly Conference, April 2, 1814, and was 
examined in doctrine by the presiding elder, Rev. David Young, and 
granted a license as a local preacher on condition that he should first 
be baptized. This condition was promptly met. On the following 
Sabbath he presented himself at the edge of a large stream of water, 
and was baptized by the water being poured on his head. 

Mr. Morris selected for his partner in life Miss Abigail Scales, and 



Thomas Asbuey Morris. 271 

on January 23, 1814, "the marriage ceremony was performed by Kev. 
Stephen Spnrlock, in the presence of only a few friends, witliout 
levity or display of any sort." The call for preachers came np from 
all parts of the work, and yonng men of any promise were hurried 
into the pulpit and pastorate. Hence Thomas was sent out immed- 
iately as a supply for three months, under an older and more experi- 
enced minister. The laymen, as well as his senior in office, seeing his 
gifts, grace, and usefulness, had him recommended by a Quarterly 
Conference for membership in the Ohio Annual Conference before 
his first three months expired. 

The way was not all smooth, neither was his soul j)lacid in the 
midst of his accumulating responsibilities. He was embarrassed by 
his lack of qualifications, a weak constitution, and a family to support 
on a very sniall salary. Doubts, too, as to whether God called him 
to the forsaking of friends, and to the preaching of the word, harassed 
his mind. But he put his trust in God, and ventured out on the new 
way, and a divine Hand led him. Over against the discouragements 
he met at the beginning of his ministry, he saw these things to 
encourage him : — his clear conversion, an intense desire to invite men 
to embrace Christ as their Saviour ; the openings of providence, as 
seen in the unsolicited call of the Church to enter her ministry ; the 
conversion of souls under his labors ; and the triumphant death of 
two persons a few months after they were led to Jesus by his first 
sermon. These were the best signs that he was called of God to 
preach the gospel ; but it w^as not until they were arrayed before 
his mind, and, like a vision, impressed him, that he had victory over 
his doubts and w^as fully impressed that God assigned to him as his 
life-work. 

When the choice was fully made, and he saw the work of his 
ministry on every hand, he went to it cheerfully, and met the opposi- 
tion and persecution which were so common, fearlessly but kindly, 
always aiming to be a blessing to the erring, and to offer salvation as 
an antidote for every wrong and wound in the souls of men. In his 
zeal for souls he did not neglect the furnishing of his mind. On the 
contrary, he regarded a w^eil-disciplined mind as a necessary qualifi- 
cation to preach the gospel successfully. Like most young men in 
the Methodist ministry of his day, he had gathered a few books, and 



272 Methodist Bishops. 

carried one or more with him into the field or woods, and when he 
had a few leisure moments from labor lie would read a page, more or 
less, and then ponder it while pursuing his work. He adopted the cus- 
tom of his fraternity, as soon as he commenced to travel, of carrying 
books in his saddle-bags, reading them and sermonizing on horseback. 
The four years' course of study in history, theology, and Church econ- 
omy, required of every young minister by his Church, and the annual 
examination by a committee of experienced ministers, gave him a 
good oj^portunity, in common with all young preachers, to prepare 
himself while at his work for future usefulness, and right well did 
Thomas A. Morris use his advantages, and grow to be a workman that 
needed not to be ashamed. 

The usage of his Church required every man who entered her 
ministry to travel or be stationed four years before he could receive 
elder's orders, Avhich is the highest ordination known in the con- 
nection. At the expiration of his two years' probation, in 1818, Mr. 
Morris was ordained deacon at Steuben ville, Ohio, by Bishop George. 
This ordination gave him authority to marry, baptize, preach, and 
assist the elders in administering the Lord's Supper ; besides, it secured 
to him all the rights and privileges of a member of the Annual Con- 
ference. Five years later, at Chillicothe, in 1820, he was ordained 
elder by Bishop Koberts. He now had received authority to conse- 
crate the emblems at the Lord's Supper, and was made eligible to the 
highest ofiices in the Church. Mr. Morris spent the first two years of 
his ministry on Marietta Circuit, where he traveled on horseback 
7,500 miles ; preached about 920 public discourses, being on an average 
more than one per day ; and besides those rej)orted by his colleague, 
Mr. Morris received' about 250 individuals into the Church at different 
points on his charge. His second appointment was Zanesville Circuit, 
where, with one colleague the first year and two the second, he la- 
bored successfully, traveling on horseback these two years 5,500 miles, 
and preaching about 500 sermons; he and his colleague received 
200 persons into the Church. Mr. Morris was now fully inducted 
into the ministry ; but his health was so impaired and his old trouble 
aggravated that his vocal organs were enfeebled to such an extent that 
he represented his case in open Conference and left it with his 
brethren, statin o; that he would receive their decision as the voice of 



Thomas Asbury Morris. 273 

Providence. He was finally appointed to Lancaster Station, and 
rendered effective service. 

AYIiile yet yonng and inexperienced as a minister, lie im|)ressed 
tlie antliorities of the Cliurcli witli liis tact for bnsiness and sagacity 
as an organizer. At Stenbenville, the first Conference young Morris 
attended, Bishop M'Kendree employed him as his j)rivate secretary. 
They occupied the same room, with two beds. As Mr. Morris was 
appointed to preach before the Conference, at five o'clock Monday 
morning, he was "wakeful" during the night, and on waking, about 
two o'clock in the morning, he observed a light in the room, and heard 
the bishop naming stations and preachers, and scratching with his 
pen, following Bishop Asbury's example of making out the appoint- 
ments all alone without his associates or the presiding elders being 
present. Mr. "Morris listened attentively, and presently the bishop 
said, in a low whisper, Barnesville, T. A. Morris, Barnesville, T. A. 
Morris. Then he heard the bishop's pen writing, as he supposed, his 
name. Young Morris was pleased because it was one of the best 
circuits in the Conference. But the bishop's plans were broken, and 
when the appointments were read the young preacher was greatly dis- 
appointed to hear the announcement, Zanesville Circuit, T. A. Morris. 

It requires peculiar gifts to do Conference business ; it is a kind 
of service for which a man receives a fitness by first possessing a taste 
for it, and, secondly, by acquiring an experience in it. A conference 
room is an ecclesiastical congress, where the presiding bishop and 
committees prepare the business and bring it forward for the whole 
Conference to finally dispose of. Mr. Morris was pre-eminently a 
lover of Conference and its business, and he became a hard-working 
member of the body — always taking an active interest in church 
extension, Sunday-schools, missions, and education, as well as all local 
matters that rose to the surface for conference action. It was in this 
way that he became known to the preachers, and knowing concerning 
them and the vital movements of the Church. By his urbanity, 
practical common sense, earnestness, and talents, joined to success in 
his fields of labor as a preacher, he won the confidence and sympathy 
of his brethren in the Conference ; and at an earlier time in life than 
was common he exerted almost unconsciously a strong influence in 
shaping the action of preachers in church affairs. 



274 Methodist Bishops. 

There were but few large chnrclies in tlie Conference, and no places 
of ease. The circuits embraced from ten to thirty preaching appoint- 
ments, and required the preacher to travel, mostly on horseback, from 
two hundred to live or seven hundred miles to get round or over his 
circuit, and involved long absences from home and much exjDosure 
to all kinds of weather. The places of worship were log-churches, 
school-houses, halls, court-houses, barns, and private dwellings. 

Mr. Morris was assigned to important fields of labor from the be- 
ginning of his ministry. He commenced on Marietta Circuit, was then 
on Zanesville Circuit, and then at Lancaster Station. After laboring 
on these charges his appointed time, he was transferred from the Ohio 
to the Kentucky Conference and stationed on Lexington Circuit. His 
second appointment in the Kentucky Conference, in 1825, was as pre- 
siding elder of Green Kiver District. He continued two years in this 
position when impaired health and sickness in his family led him to ask 
for a different kind of work. The suffering he endured from a shock 
of paralysis, which came upon him in 1826, while preaching at Dover, 
Tennessee, was a great afiliction. The congregation was assembled in 
the court-house. Though ill for several days previous, and still feeble, 
Mr. Morris preached, and at the close of the service his left hand and 
feet Av ere cold and his left eye singularly affected ; he suffered from 
momentary blindness and deafness, and a suspension of intellection. 
In a few hours after the shock he gathered strength and journeyed to 
his next appointment. He records that during the three years follow- 
ing lie had probably from two to three hundred shocks of paralysis, 
w^hich grew lighter and lighter until they ceased entirely. 

For his first twelve years' service as a preacher he received §2,000 
and liad spent nearly all the surplus funds he had accumulated before 
he decided to enter the ministry. He broke down two horses the two 
first years he served as presiding elder, and received for his labors less 
than the horses cost him. His next ajDpointment was Louisville, and 
at the close of his term of service here he was transferred to the Ohio 
Conference in 1828, and appointed to Lebanon Circuit, where lie had 
Bishop Soule's family for near neighbors, and had the pleasure of 
seeing four of the bishop's children unite with the Church under his 
ministry. From here he went to Columbus, and then to Cincinnati. 
While stationed in Cincinnati the Asiatic cholera swept through the 



TiroMAS AsBURY Morris. 275 

city and caused a great destruction of life. During the ravages of the 
disease funerals could be seen on the streets every hour in the day 
from seven o'clock in the morning till dark in the evening ; business 
was suspended, and the city wore the appearance of a Sabbath-day. 
Fifty members of the Methodist Episcopal Church died in Cincinnati 
that year. Mr. Morris remained at his work, visiting the sick and 
dying, comforting the bereaved, and by his noble example inspiring 
the fearful to lend help in the hour of the city's greatest calamity. 
A wonderful work of grace followed the epidemic, so that there were 
about one thousand probationers added to the Methodist Churches 
alone. Affliction and grace made this a memorable year in his min- 
istry. In 1833 Mr. Morris was appointed presiding elder of 
Cincinnati District. For the sake of convenience and economy, he 
moved his family to Madison ville, eight miles from the city, into a 
house for which he paid $3 per month, and on a salary of $320 per 
year he purchased a horse and wagon and commenced his work, count- 
ing it a pleasant field of labor. 

Mr. Morris was a genial-looking gentleman, portly, and of medium 
height, and in later life he usually walked with a cane. He possessed 
a full face, with features so evenly blended that mildness and sympathy 
were companions in his usual expression. His clear eyes peered 
through glasses ; the forehead was high and full, the intellect pressing 
itself into prominence. He possessed decision happily blended with 
kindness, and conservativeness with positiveness. 

As a preacher Mr. Morris was plain, both in his matter and man- 
ner. He adopted the language of the common people, without using 
the undignified phrases or slang sayings in vogue among the masses ; 
there was no overreaching in his discourses to bring in scholastic ex- 
pressions, or learned historical allusions. Cant and philosophy, as such, 
were excluded. The natural overflow of his devoutly pious and earnest 
soul made his sermons impressive, and they were invariably on themes 
adapted to the immediate necessities of his hearers. He never allowed 
himself to use novelty to excite curiosity, and then come to the gospel 
for his conclusions. Good common sense and the pure word of God 
made a happy union in both his extempore and written discourses. He 
vras not a man of brilliant gifts. His early efforts at preaching and 
writing left the impression upon his auditors that he possessed a plain 



276 Methodist Bishops. 

mind, no one faculty of which seemed to express itself with more of 
force or beauty than another. His mind was a complete whole, and 
very evenly balanced, when viewed, from the stand-point of practical 
work. He was not the author of theories or mere speculations, but 
could always apply himself, with a rare adaptation, to the wants of the 
hour ; combining practical reasons that were found in the surroundings, 
to enforce his ideas of justice, repentance, the perseverance of the 
saints, or any subject he discussed. Having come from among the 
common people he never forgot the fact. This was one of the hidden 
ties which bound him to the masses, and it wielded a powerful influ- 
ence over his thought and feelings, and contributed to make him the 
practical man he was. His language and forms of thought, personal 
habits, and official acts, illustrated this one ruling motive of his life, 
" The poor [shall] have the gospel preached unto them." ]N"either race 
nor complexion made that difference among men in his judgment that 
is so common among the thoughtless and superficial. Measured by 
the standard of common sense, utility, and success in leading men to 
God, Thomas A. Morris was an able and successful j)reacher. 

Every great organization has positions of trust w^hich are often 
places of great usefulness, and at the same time they afford rare oppor- • 
tunities for exerting a wide-spread influence for either good or evil upon 
men. The Methodist Episcopal Church was increasing in numerical 
strength so rapidly when Mr. Morris was in his prime, that new offices 
were necessarily created, as well as more officers of the existing orders 
needed to carry on the work of the Church. As a rule, men were 
selected to fill the chief offices of the Church because of their ability 
and grace, as well as other good qualities, especially success in doing 
their work. 'No fact stands out more prominently in the history of 
Methodism than this. That the successful men in ]ier ministry have 
always been advanced to more important trusts, w^hile the indolent 
and unsuccessful men have fallen out of sight. 

The Kentucky and Ohio Conferences recognized Mr. Morris as a 
successful Methodist minister. Once he filled the office of presiding 
elder in the Kentucky Conference, and twice did this body elect him 
to the General Conference. In the Ohio Conference he was made 
presiding elder of the chief district, and twice did his brethren in 
Ohio send him to the General Conference. A time had now come in 



Thomas Asbury Morris. 27 T 

tlie movements of the Clmrch, when it was deemed necessary that a 
paper be established at Cincinnati, which should be the advocate of 
Bible doctrines as held by the Methodist people. Arrangements were 
made to try the experiment, the paper was named the "Western 
Christian Advocate," and Thomas A. Morris was chosen the editor. 
He accepted the position, moved his family back to Cinchmati, and 
located them in a cottage abont a mile from his office. 

It was a new project throughout. The paper must be made, cor- 
respondents secured, subscribers won, and the enterprise must be a 
success, or very likely it. would be abandoned by the next General 
Conference. Mr. Morris had no experience in editorial work, but he 
relied on his resources of mind and heart, by which he had won suc- 
cess in other difficult places of trust. He made a wise use of his 
opportunity, and immediately planted the paper so deeply in the con- 
fidence and affections of the people that it soon became a necessity in 
the Methodism of the West, and it very early took a leading rank 
among religious papers in the country, and still holds its position. 

During the last year Mr. Morris was editor the Book Committee 
examined the accounts of the publishers of the paper, and embodied 
in their annual report to the Ohio Conference, of which the editor was 
then a member, the following facts : " The ' Western Advocate ' has 
5,500 subscribers, and the number is increasing ; we are happy to be 
able to say to the Conference, that it is not in debt. They own the 
press and type, and all the apparatus necessary for its publication. 
There is due on this volume $2,541 56, besides paper on hand for its 
publication say two months. The profits up to August, 1835 were 
$2,892 lY." 

Mr. Morris says, in his diary, " The third volume commenced with 
8,200 subscribers." 

The General Conference of 1836 met in Cincinnati. It seemed to 
be a foregone conclusion that two or three men would be elected to 
fill the office of bishop at this session. It had frequently been sug- 
gested in Church circles that Mr. Morris would make a good bishop. 
He was prominently before the denomination as editor, and being 
widely known, and highly appreciated by his intimate friends, they 
were quick to embrace the opportunity by presenting his name as a 
candidate. This was done in the city where he had served as a pastor, 
17 



278 Methodlst Bishops. 

presiding elder, and editor. Beverly Waugli and Wilbur Fisk were 
elected on the first ballot, and Mr. Morris lacked only one vote of an 
election. Mr. Morris rose in the midst of the balloting, and requested 
the Conference to consider his name withdrawn, and not to vote for 
him. When they reached the fifth ballot he again came within one 
vote of an election. Twice it was in his power to have elected him- 
self, bnt by voting for another candidate he delayed his destiny until 
the sixth ballot, when he was chosen by a considerable majority. 

Mrs. Morris had now shared all the blessings of advancement that 
accrued to her husband, as an exhorter, local preacher, deacon, 
elder, presiding elder, member of the General Conference, editor, and 
bishop, in the Church. She was a partaker in his toils and triumphs, 
joys and sorrows, through all his ministry until the ITth of May, 
1842, when she died joyfully, and passed to the Christian's home in 
heaven. 

Like most men who have edited a paper, Bisho]3 Morris ever after 
retained his love for writing to the great public. He published a 
sermon on Bishop Waugh after his death, and one on Dr. ]N"evins, in 
pamphlet form. His work on " Church Politj' " exhibits sound judg- 
ment, executive skill, and administrative ability. It is a comprehen- 
sive statement of the government of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
combining many practical suggestions with elaborate definitions of 
duties that belong to the chief ofiicers of the Church. It makes a 
sim23le and able defense of the peculiar form of government adopted 
by the Methodist people. As a controversialist he was firm but 
kind, loyal to the Church of his choice in the best sense, and fearless 
in making a defense of her usages and doctrines. He met innovations, 
whether they originated within or without the Church, with a sus- 
picion which resembled a contempt for disloyalty. 

He published a volume of sermons on practical subjects which 
has had a good sale. These, with a volume of " Miscellany," constitute 
his published works. The ''Miscellany" is made up mostly of edi- 
torials prepared for the " Western Christian Advocate." His books, 
like his preaching, are plain in style and practical in their teachings. 
Bishop Morris evidently loved John Wesley's plainness of expression, 
and the practical bearing of what he wrote, and followed him as an 
example, both in his preaching and writing. 



^ Thomas AsBURY Morris. 279 

Bishop Morris was always among the radical men in the Church, 
but he was the conseiwative among the radicals. When the old style 
of churches was passing away he wrote in the " Western Advocate," as 
follows : " Can we reasonably expect to see the people brought to 
Christ by gorgeous churches in our cities, with steeples, and bells, 
musical instruments, fashionably affected choirs, decorated pulpits, 
cushioned pews, and a popular oratory, adapted to the whole. Do we 
by these means expect to save ourselves and them that hear us ? As 
well might we undertake to save our houses when on fire by the 
application of oil instead of water, for these things feed the carnal 
mind rather than crucify it." He contended earnestly for the sim- 
plicity which characterized the Methodist people of early times. 
Writing about the attractions of home for young people he expressed 
himself thus :— ~ 

" To render the parlor where they resort attractive, the most 
costly furniture must be displayed. The central table must be well 
supplied with romances, flutes, backgammon, boxes, and other articles 
of fancy or amusement. The daughters, to keep up their credit, must 
have a piano-forte, worth at least $300, (what a miserable appropria- 
tion of our Lord's money is this to be made by a Methodist,) and 
whatever else they remain ignorant of, they must know how to 
entertain the circle of fashionable visitants with some of its lighter 
airs, which they generally prefer to the songs of Zion." 

On the temperance question he advocated total abstinence as early 
as 1835. When he saw that the admission of laymen to the law- 
making body of his Church was to be a question of reform, he quite 
early advocated the change. Though he took his position and held 
it in the most conservative manner, it was a remarkable part of his 
history, from the fact that he was one of the fathers in his Church 
when the reform put on its most positive shape. He had been 
identified with early Methodism and knew its successful workings ; 
and while many of the early Methodists objected to the innovation. 
Bishop Morris indorsed it in his old age. While he could not be 
assigned a place among the leaders in Church reforms, yet he was 
a friend of reforms, but one who followed rather than led. 

The greatest trial of his episcopal life was occasioned by the 
separation of the Southern portion of Methodism from the parent 



280 Methodist Bishops. 

Cliiirch. Slavery was making encroachments npon tlie denomination, 
as it was npon the territory of the country, and the attempt to stay 
its progress produced an open eruption which resulted in a division 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Bishop Morris was a native of 
Virginia, -and had spent most of his life, previous to his election as 
bishop, in that State and Kentucky. When the trouble came, in 1844, 
Methodist people throughout the country were anxious to know which 
side of the question this conservative bishop would take. We give 
the following notes from his Diary, which he wrote with the caution 
of an historian : ''I cannot recur to the scenes of 1844 and 1845 with- 
out the deepest regret and most poignant grief. I regard the unhappy 
division of the Methodist Episcopal Church as a public calamity to 
the country, injuriously affecting the interests of Protestant Chris- 
tianity in general, and inflicting on Methodism the severest wound it 
ever received. . . . The whole affair originated, progressed, and 
terminated in the most consummate folly that wise and good men 
w^ere ever guilty of. There was really no necessity for it, especially 
in the ruinous form in which it occurred; and even after the unfor- 
tunate plan of separation, contingently providing for it, was adopted ; 
if the editors of the weekly Chnrcli papers and the Annual Confer- 
ences had proved as conciliatory as the bishop, there would either 
have been no separation or a friendly one without loss of mutual confi- 
dence or brotherly feeling. I think it is no breach of charity to 
express an opinion, that the leaders of both parties were fallen men 
— fallen from the love that suffereth long and is kind : ' By this shall 
all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another.' . . . 
As to my own course in the premises, I sought the blessing pertaining 
to a 'peace-maker,' by aiming to conciliate both parties. But what 
was my feeble voice amid the conflict of passion ? 'No more than a frail 
signal of distress in a sweeping tempest. My conservatism was not 
strong enough for the views of the new organization and too strong 
for those of the old, so that I measurably lost cast with both, which 
greatly strengthens my belief that I was about right, together with 
all moderate men who occupied the same ground. Conservatives will 
have to meet a far less fearful reckoning, in my opinion, than they 
who took the awful responsibility of severing the Church of Christ, 
and I would rather forfeit the good opinion of such than to incur his 



Thomas Asbury Morkis. 281 

displeasure." In June, 1844, Bishop Morris married the widow of 
Dr. Merri wether. She was a resident of Louisville, Kentucky, and 
the bishop was her third husband. Mrs. Merriwether being a South- 
ern lady, and the Church storm raging the most furiously at the time 
the nuptials were celebrated, it excited the publication of an article in 
the ^N'ew York " Commercial Advertiser," in which the bishop w^as 
stigmatized as a " slave-holder " by marriage, to which he replied as 

follows : 

Milwaukee, W. T., July 23, 1844. 
Mr. F. Hall, Editor of "Commercial Advertiser:" 

Dear Sir — I have just seen in the '' Albany Journal" of the 12th inst., an 
article headed. "Another Slave-holding Bishop," and credited to the "Com- 
mercial Advertiser," highly injurious to me and the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, which I hope you will have the goodness to correct. There is but 
one truth in the whole article, namely, that Bishop Morris had married a widow 
lady in Kentucky. The statement that she is possessed of slaves is incorrect, 
and the report of my executing a contract previous to marriage relinquishing 
my prospective claim to her slaves m favor of her child by her former marriage 
is wholly false. I made no such contract — no such relinquisliment — and she had 
no child as represented by the writer to be a party in such transaction. The 
only connection she had with slavery was nominal, as tru^ee of her deceased 
husband's estate, under a will which secured ultimately the whole of it to her 
step-son, and according to an express provision of the will her act of marriage 
annulled the will, and severed that nominal connection. Neither my wife nor 
myself have any interest in slave property, direct or indirect; nor has either of 
us any connection with slavery in fact or form. Yours respectfully, 

Thomas A. Morris. 

Bishop Morris records this as his judgment after a visit through 
the Southern States in 1845 : " You may reason w^ith- a man's judg- 
ment, but not with his passions, either North or South, whatevei 
may have been suspected to the contrary by violent partisans. In 
view of the whole ground of difficulty, as presented in 1845, I relin- 
quished my southern route (his Conferences) in favor of Bishop Soule, 
and he relinquished his north-western route in my favor." 

The year 1848 was an eventful one in the history of Methodism. 
The evils as well as blessings of Church division had been quite fully 
developed, hence the action of the coming General Conference was 
anticipated with unusual solicitude. It was a trying time for all 
Methodist people, but more especially for the bishops, because they 



282 Methodist Bishops. 

were in the front of tlie contest. Bishop Morris realized that he 
"^'onld occupy a very trying position, and, with his usual sagacity, he 
penned the following rules for his own self-government : — 

Suijeds for Bejlection during the General Conference Fast^ Friday^ April 28, 1848. 

1. This day I am 54 years old. Millions born after have died before me, 
-while my life and health are still perpetuated, a subject of distinguished 
mercy. 

2. All I have and all I am — except sin and misery — I owe to the Methodist 
Episcopal Church under God. May I never prove recreant to her, or ungrateful 
to him. 

3. Having been a member nearly thirty-five years, and a traveling preacher 
more than thirty-two years, though much of the time unfaithful and unprofit- 
able, I am fully satisfied there is no Church which afi"ords more helps to piety in 
this world, or a better prospect of gaining heaven in the end, than the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church. 

4. Since the separation of the Southern Conferences her peace has been much 
disturbed by angry controversy on both sides of the line. Many difficult ques- 
tions remain unsettled ; much trouble may be expected during and after the Gen- 
eral Conference of 1848. O for heavenly wisdom and Christian forbearance. 
Help, Lord, for vain is the help of man without thy blessing. 

5. The doings of the General Conference will exert a powerful influence for 
weal or woe upon the interests of Protestant Christianity in general ; and espe- 
cially upon those of Methodism in the United States. To this crisis I have 
long looked as the day of conflict and trial, from which none but God can 
deliver us. May he deliver! 

6. ']'o this end may we all confess our sins to him and forsake them, and 
consecrate ourselves anew to the service and cause of Christ, that we may 
build up, and not destroy, the household of faith. 

7. It is a time that calls for firmness and moderation; "united we stand, 
divided we fall." No difference of opinion respecting Church polity should 
divide us, unless it be such as to involve conscience or a sacrifice of moral 
principle. Here I take my stand ; the brethren may do what they will, pro- 
vided they do not require me, against my conscience and principles, to par- 
ticipate in measures ruinous to the peace of the Church and dangerous to the 
country : and I am with them still. Beyond this point how can I go ? May 
I not be put to the trial. T. A. Mokris. 

Pittsburgh, Pa., April 28, 1848. 

His decision to remain with the Methodist Ep)iscopal Church, 
where he had been honored and beloved, allayed the suspicions of the 



TlIOM.AS ASBUKY MORIIIF. 283 

people in the IN^orth, and settled tlie expectations and propliecies of the 
people in the Sonth, by making it appear that Thomas A. Morris was 
not in sympathy with slavery. While editor of the " Western Chris- 
tian Advocate " he wrote an editorial on the message of Governor 
M'Duffie, in wliich he says : " For slavery as a system we have no 
apology to make and never had; neither ha^e we any to make for the 
means which abolitionists propose for its extermination. We are a 
Methodist, and Methodism has no fellowship with the princi23les of 
oppression on one hand or those of political incendiarism on the other. 
Methodism, as it ever has been, is in favor of gradual, peaceable, con- 
stitutional emancipation." This was his position as an editor, and 
when he was brought to the test it was the same as a bishop. A con- 
servative man always appears to disadvantage while the contest is rag- 
ing, however earnestly he may explain his motives and aim. Those 
more conservative and those more radical than himself will criticise 
him severely and judge him harshly. Bishop Morris waited for events 
to occur through which his record would receive a new shading, and 
•incite a charitable interpretation. He grew in the esteem of his 
Church as the years rolled away, and he rendered a service which was 
conciliatory in its nature. Peculiarly adapted by constitutional tend- 
encies and education to fill the office of a peace-maker, he imj)roved 
the opportunity presented by the division of his Church, and enjoyed 
even on earth the peace-maker's blessing. 

Bishop Morris was peculiarly endowed with the genius of labor, 
and by this, as much as by any other power, he achieved success in 
every position he held. As a presiding ofiicer he won the confidence 
and esteend of the ministry. He was dignified, and quick to grasp the 
situation in a stormy debate, and successful in calming the discordant 
elements. He was diligent in looking after the details of his work, 
and zealous as a preacher, pastor, writer, and overseer of the 
Churches committed to his care. In the winter of 1842 he visited 
ten towns and cities, and labored in each place a week, preaching 
and encouraging the ministers and people in the work of the Church. 
This effort, with the- duties he performed in the general work, came 
near costing him his life. ^Notwithstanding this he labored several 
weeks in 1843 at camp-meetings. But he soon learned that it was 
impossible for one man to do every thing he saw undone. His ina- 



284 Methodist Bishops. 

bilitj to meet every call, and to gratify every desire for work, led Mm 
to adopt greater caution in economizing his physical energies for the 
special duties of the episcopacy. 

His duties were both numerous and onerous. In 1850 he presided 
over the Baltimore Conference, Providence, 'New England, New 
Hampshire, Troy, Vermont, East Maine, Maine, Ohio, Indiana, 
North Ohio, and Michigan. He met the bishops at Philadelphia, 
and attended the meeting of the General Missionary Committee, at 
"New York, and dedicated a church at Williamsburgh. These labors 
were all performed between the first of March and last of October. 
He had general supervision of the foreign missions of the Church 
from May, 1849, to May, 1851. During this time he appointed one 
missionary to Liberia, two to China, five to Germany, one to l^ew 
Mexico, and some dozen or fifteen to Oregon and California. 

He assigned to their fields of labor during his life not less than 

* 30,000 ministers, traveled this country to the outer edge of its civiliza- 
tion over and over again, and had preached sermons innumerable, and 
only ceased to labor when labor became physically impossible. 

He could say wdth Paul, " in perils often." We find by his own 
record, that from the time he entered the ministry till he retired from 

, the work, he was thrown from a horse twice ; tipped over in a 
stage with Bishop Soule when going home from General Conference ; 
at another time he was thrown twelve feet from a bridge in a buggy 
with his horse ; his life was threatened by a Southern desperado. 

In 1851, when on his way to the JS^orth Indiana Conference, in a 
stage drawn by four horses and manned by two drivers, the horses 
took fright about ten o'clock at night, ran away, capsized the stage, 

« mashed his hat, broke his spectacles, bruised his head, and fractured a 
bone in one of his fingers. 

In 1855, when returning from Louisville in a train, it came in con- 

. tact with a cow and was thrown from the track ; two of the cars rolled 
down a bank six to eight feet high, and were badly broken, but no 
person was killed and only two persons injured. This was the third 
train that was thrown from the tract when he was a passenger, but in 
no case did he receive any injury. 

He closes the record of one year with this note, ^' So passed off 
another year of toil and peril." 



Thomas Asbury Morris. 285 

This is the record at the close of another year : " I got home by 
the middle of October, and felt like singing," 

" ' Through many dangers, snares, and deaths 

I have already come; 
'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, 

And grace will lead me home.' " 

In 1860 Bishop Morris suffered from impaired health, but he was 
able to attend the General Conference, which met in Buffalo, 'New 
York. It was before this body that he preached the sermon on the 
life and labors of his deceased friend Bishop Waugh. His exhaustion 
under the effort was noticeable by the whole audience, and the Con- 
ference exonerated him from doing the full work of a bishop. In 
the fall of this year he presided over three Conferences and met his 
colleagues and the General Missionary Committee in New York. He 
had a neat and comfortable home in Springfield, Ohio, which he pur- 
chased in 1860. To this he returned from the General Conference of 
1864, so feeble in health as to be unfitted for the kind of active service 
he had so long rendered the Church. In 1868 he appeared in the 
General Conference and called the body to order. He was present 
during the session of 18Y2, and occupied a seat on the platform with 
his colleagues. In 18Y1 Mrs. Lucy Morris died in great j^eace at the 
family home in Springfield. On the 6th day of June, 18Y2, Bishop 
Morris was married to Miss Sarah Bruscup, of Lockland, Ohio. 

The bishop's health began to fail rapidly in August, 1874, and as 
if impressed with his coming change from earth, he wrote the follow- 
ing letter to his brethren in the Cincinnati Conference. 

Spkingfielu. Ohio, August 24, 1874. 
To Eev. Bishop Foster and the Cincinnati Conference^ in Conference assembled: — 

Dear Brethren: I wish to say a few things to you in regard to my health, 
and some other matters. The 28th of last April I entered my eighty-first year. 
I have but little pain or sickness for one of my age. I sleep well. My digestion 
is excellent, and, apart from the infirmities incident to my time of life I am very 
comfortable. I, however, take but little part in the active duties of life, and, 
having served my day and generation as God has given me ability, I am now 
resting in the quietude of my home. True, I am no hunger able to go in and out 
before you, to sit in your councils, and take part in your deliberations, yet my 
heart and sympathy are with you ; and for Zion's prosperity my tears shall fall 



286 Methodist BisHors. 

and ray prayers ascend until my release is signed, and I go to join the Church 
triumphant in the skies. 

As to my religious enjoyment, it is not increased by exemption from labor, 
but rather the contrary. This, however, is what I expected ; and I find it 
requires more grace to suffer than to do the will of my heavenly Father. But, 
although this is tlie case, I am by no means destitute of enjoyment. No, dear 
brethren ; I find the religion I so long preached to others is able to bring peace 
and assurance to the heart in retirement, as well as when in the heat of the bat- 
tle, leading forth the conquering hosts to certain victory. Thank God for the 
Christian's hope! It comforts and sustains amid all the vicissitudes of life, and 
to the trusting heart makes bright the future. In reviewing the past, I have 
only this to say, that God has been very good to me. Most of my associates in 
the ministry, as well as many loved ones, have passed away. I yet linger on the 
shore, and soon expect to cross the river. I am nearing the Jordan, and in the 
course of nature cannot stay here much longer ; but beneath me are the everlast- 
ing arms, and, through riches of grace in Christ Jesus my Lord, I hope to 
anchor safely in the harbor of eternal rest. In all probability this is the last time 
I shall address you. Before another session of your Conference I may be safely 
home. Therefore, in conclusion, permit me to say, dear brethren, live for God ; 
preach Christ and him crucified ; seek not the applause of men, or the honor 
that cometh from the world; but so live that, in the great day of accounts, you 
can say, ''Here am I, and the souls thou hast given me." Praying the great 
Head of the Church to direct in all the deliberations of the present session of 
Conference, I am, dear brethren. 

Yours, fraternally, T. A. Mokeis. 

It was like a bugle call from a faithful commander, who was about 
to quit the field. After it was read to his brethren they returned a 
reply signed by four ministers and adopted by a rising vote of the 
Conference. Two days after he wrote this letter, on the 26th of 
August, while sinking rapidly, he said to his wife, "All is well," 
" All is right." On the 31st his wife expressed a fear that he 
might soon be called away; he said promptly, "All is right," "All 
is right." Yv^hen asked .by his wife, "How does the future look?" 
he responded, " The future looks bright." With this experience he 
lingered until Wednesday, September 2, when he fell asleep in 
Jesus. Good men carried him to his burial, and his dust rests in 
Fern Cliff Cemetery, at Springfield, waiting for the resurrection of 
the just. 



^^_ 



%-^ >*f# V 




^,^-e^ - ^^/-^^-<^ ^ ^y 



-^^^^^^ 



^^^^^^-z-^t^ 



1 



Leonidas Lent Hamline. 



BY KEY. THOMAS M. EDDY, D.D. 



LEONIDAS L. HAMLIJSTE was bom in Burlington, Hartford Co., 
Connecticut, May 10, 1797 ; he died at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, March 
23, 1865. The events crowded into the active and suffering life be- 
tween these extremes may be thus epitomized : Partially educated for 
the ministry, but turning to the profession of the law, he was admitted 
to the bar in the State of Ohio, and gave promise of legal eminence. 
Being, however, convicted of sin and converted in 1828, he immedi- 
ately commenced preaching, and, after one year in the local ranks, was 
admitted into the pastorate of the Methodist Ej)iscopal Church by the 
Ohio Conference. Commencing his work as a circuit preacher in a 
rough region of country, it was soon discovered that he was a master 
of pulpit eloquence, and he soon was placed in the first charges in the 
cities of Ohio. From 1836 to 1844 he served the Church as editor, 
being from 1836 to 1840 associated with Dr. Charles Elliott in the 
management of the " Western Christian Advocate," and from 1840 to 
1844 editor of the "Ladies' Kepository." In 1844 he was elected 
bishop, and in 1852, in consequence of broken health, and in accord- 
ance with his expressed views of the episcopacy, he resigned the office 
and assumed a superannuated relation in his beloved Ohio Conference, 
in which he remained until his triumphant death. 

He was twice married, namely : in 1824 to Miss Eliza Price, of 
Zanesville, Ohio. Of this marriage four children were born, of whom 
Dr. Leo P. Hamline, of Evanston, Illinois, is sole survivor. He was 
married again in 1836 to Mrs. Malinda Truesdale, of Cincinnati, Ohio, 
who still survives him. 

Religious Chakacter. 

But these meager lines make no picture. First in importance is 
his religious experience and character. He was descended from a 
Huguenot ancestry, and his father, Mark Hamline, was as noted for his 



290 Methodist Bishops. 

strong Hopkinsian faith as for stalwart moral decision. Leonidas grew 
up in that faith. " Edwards on the Will "_ was his favorite polemic. 
Hence his acceptance of Methodism demanded, as a condition prece- 
dent, a thorough change of theological beliefs. He accepted some of 
the more rugged features of Calvinian faith with logical firmness and 
defended them intrepidly. Prior to his conversion a gentleman of the 
Methodist Church held a conversation with him from which we make 
some extracts : — 

E. " 1^0 w, Mr. Hamline, I have one question. In what consists 
the sinfulness of human action % " 

H. " That is a difficult question to answer. If we say it lies in 
the deed^ we contradict reason and Scripture ; if we place it in the 
volition or in will, we seem to make God the sinner and acquit man 
of blame ; yet there is a philosophical necessity to predicate sin of the 
will, which I do, and resort to certain explanations to avoid the con- 
clusion that Deity sins." 

E. " What are those explanations ? " 

E. " There is a difference between the author and the agent of 
sin. Its author jprovides for its commission but does not actually 
commit it. The guilt lies in commission^ not in provision. God, 
for instance, bestows on man the powers of his nature, the relations of 
his being, and generates in his bosom thoughts, affections, and voli- 
tions, either good or bad. These in the wicked are a diiymQ j)romsion 
for sinning ; but man is the agent for their use ; of course^ man, not 
God, is the sinner." 

E. "Is not their use inevitable ? " 

E. " Certainly ; inevitable, yet free." 

E. " How is that possible ? " 

E. " Just as water flows freely, yet inevitably, down hill ; or the 
vapors ascend sjDontaneously, yet necessarily." 

This system of remorseless logic enveloped him as an atmosphere, 
put iron in his blood, and cold decision into his brain, but carried him 
into semi-skepticism. But conviction of sin came ; conviction which 
would not down. He saw his personal guilt, and the necessity of the 
new birth. He had a bitter and protracted struggle in darkness and 
wretchedness, emerging at last into the kingdom of righteousness, 
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. In this crisis of his life he passed 



Leonid AS Lent Hamline. 291 

through a theological and metaphysical revolution, and became a dis- 
ciple of Fletcher and not of Edwards. He was thereafter a thorough 
Wesleyan Arminian, and was a grand leader in the contests of his 
day on the mooted questions lying wdthin the domain of the " five 
points." 

It was natural that such a struggle and deliverance as his should 
make him a most thorough believer in supernaturalism. Conversion 
was an epoch, regeneration a miracle, the new creation as real an act 
of power — and power projected from without — from God, as was the 
first, and the Eden of the saved soul a more real paradise than the 
one watered by the four rivers and watched by Adam. God became 
to him intensely real and personal. God in Christ was so near that he 
could be spoken to and could answer. He, therefore, believed in pray- 
er as do few nien of that or other times. The p.ersonal God in Christ 
Jesus was at hand to be asked, supplicated, adored, and was able, 
willing, and ready to help men, women, and children wanting help. 

Yet he was a Christian called to conflict ; partly, it may be, from 
physical temperament ; partly from disease ; partly, ]3erhaps, from pa- 
ternal discipline : he was obliged to wrestle for his faith. He was 
compelled to stand guard over his spiritual treasures. His record of 
experience reminds us of the fiery struggles of Bunyan. But he 
found arms and armor, and endured as seeing Him who is invisible. 

He became a witness and teacher of the privilege of the Christian 
to enter into perfected rest in Christ, and to attain the fullness of per- 
fect love. He was profoundly conscious of the paramount obligation 
of submitting himself unto God, soul, body, and spirit, and this he 
was enabled to do. He was distinctly conscious that the ever-blessed 
Holy Spirit could deliver the surrendered life from sin, fill it w^itli 
the light and sweetness of love, and so keep it unto the day of the 
Lord. Few men have so clearly and impressively stated this great 
duty and privilege of Christian life, and few have so constantly walked 
in its blessedness. 

The Preacher. 

He was tested in almost every department of ministerial service. 
He began in the rugged discij^line of circuit life, preaching in private 
houses, school-houses, barns, in the green wood, in country chapels, 
and in spacious city churches. His physique was in his favor. It 



292 Methodist Bishops. 

may be termed majestic. Sufficiently full in person to give an ap- 
pearance of dignity ; snfficiently athletic to give a sense of reserved 
power ; his dark features were expressive of thonght and emotion 
held in control : he stood master of the situation. His voice was per- 
fection. It was musical, yet deep-toned and commanding. There 
was a power in his eye the writer yet feels, though years have passed 
since he came under its blazing influence. 

There appeared to be perfect self-possession in his bearing. This 
was so in the pulpit, on the platform, or the Conference floor. He 
was ordinarily thoroughly prepared. ]^ot always by full written 
composition, although he often employed that method in the con- 
struction of his sermons, while his celebrated speech in 18M on the 
powers of the General Conference was not previously written, but was 
delivered from a few notes written in pencil on a sheet of note paper. 
Yet it was compact, smoothly fitted, its logic inexorable, and its 
rhetoric finished. His colleagues well said of him, "He rarely de- 
livered a discourse which might not have been printed word for word 
as it fell from his lips." 

He had a logic peculiarly his own. It was compact, vigorous, 
manly, but used with the paraphernalia of logic out of sight. But 
there was no escaping his conclusions. His links were well riveted 
and of flawless metal. He was a masterly advocate of the truth. He 
championed it fearlessly and wisely ; but his argument was made clear 
to the minds of unread hearers as well as trained thinkers. 

His theological tenets were carefully generalized, ably put, and 
defended with unanswerable cogency. His sermons on the Trinity, 
the Atonement, the Witness of the Spirit, the Kature and Mode of 
Baptism, and on Perfect Love, were models of doctrinal exposition. 

Yet this gigantic thinker, this great theologian, this princely orator, 
was one of the most efficient of revival preachers. He believed in 
revivals ; fully accepted and relied upon the supernatural elemxent in 
them. We doubt if any man in the Methodist Episcopal Church 
labored more devotedly, or preached more sermons in revival meetings 
than he during the eight years of editorial life he spent in Cincinnati, 
from 1836 to 1844. The record is a remarkable one. The writer, in 
1842, was junior on a western circuit, and learning that Mr. Hamline 
was preaching in a village some fifteen miles distant, went thither, 



Leonid AS Lent H A:\rLiNE. 293 

arriving at niglitfall. Mr. Hamline entered the pulpit and read the 

hymn — 

"Thou Shepherd of Israel and mine, 
The joy and desire of my heart," etc., 

and, after singing, offered a brief prayer, full of earnest appeal to the 
divine Helper. Without additional singing he announced his text : 
"Am I my brother's keeper ? " The sermon searched the heart and 
conscience, and there was no escape from its conclusions. It was 
direct, terrible in its presentation of human 'responsibility, and at 
the last tender in its appeals to receive mercy. It was followed by 
a praj^er-meeting for penitents. The preacher of the hour led that 
service also. 

The following morning he preached again on these words : " For 
ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." It was the 
same man in another phase of pulpit character. He was dealing 
with exposition ; he was helping souls into the rich grace of life. 
He exalted faith, and made its exercise appear at once both majestic 
and simple. This, again, was succeeded by a prayer-meeting, in 
which he sought to lead men singly into the liberty of the sons of 
God. 

Often, at camp-meeting or Conference, he broke forth into direct 
exhortation and persuasive entreaty. He was in earnest for human 
salvation, and pressed his vantage to the point of immediate sur- 
render. His combination of powers gave him unusual excellence 
on the platform, where he often appeared as the advocate of mis- 
sions, the Bible cause, etc. 

That he had superiors in single lines of eloquence is conceded ; 
but who combined so many elements of pulpit power ? It was the 
opinion of many that he was the peer of the ablest preachers of 
the Church. 

He did not always maintain his full power. Occasionally his 
strong pinions temporarily drooped. This was at times caused by 
disease, or, in later years, by the pressure of official cares ; and as 
one of his followers has said, " Perhaps he erred, after he became a 
bishop, in supposing that he ought not to study the graces which 
marked his earlier productions." 

It is not fair to his memory to infer that he ever ceased to be 



294 Methodist Bishops. 

careful and painstaking in the matter of liis sermons. There are 
men who act as though they had outgrown the necessity of thorough 
study for the pulpit, and decline of power and influence invariably 
comes with cessation from the beating of oil for the sanctuary, and the 
loss of power from such a cause is little less than crime. JSTay, is it 
less ? Is it not rather a crime before which ordinary negligences are 
dwarfed ? 

In the case of Bishop Plamline, however, his prostration of 
health soon after entering upon his e23iscopal functions, was the 
check upon his pulpit efficiency. He continued to preach grandly 
until disease shook him over the grave, and retiracy was enforced. 

Bishop Peck gives this estimate of his j)reaching : — 

''In the pulpit Bishop Hamline was greater than himself. 'He 
rose with the inspiration of the hour into a sphere of thought and 
impassioned eloquence which held his vast audiences spell-bound. His 
gifts of oratory, including attitude, voice, and expression, were ren- 
dered more extraordinary by the deep pathos of love, and the unction 
of the Holy Ghost which fell upon him in almost every sermon. De- 
nominational pride, the curiosity of strangers, and the spirit of criti- 
cism, were all subdued and lost amid the general feeling that we 
were listening to a message from God. He was unquestionably one 
of the greatest pulpit orators of his times, and men went away from 
the scene of his masterly efforts loathing their inward corruption, and 
panting for holiness." 

Dr. F. G. Hibbard bears a similar testimony : — 

" Without disparagement to any other quality or function, I think 
it must be awarded him that his distinguishing glory was in the pulpit. 
It was his divine call as a preacher of the cross which absorbed all the 
lesser distinctions of ecclesiastical office and social position, and made 
him forget all other honors, aye, even the infirmities of a shattered 
constitution. It was to this point that the full capabilities of his great 
soul converged. Here he massed the forces of his vigorous intellect, 
and summoned the resources of his knowledge, his logic, his tact at 
debate, and his admirable power of delivery. . . . His use of words 
was never redundant, remarkably Saxon in their selection, and always 
within the ready comprehension of his hearers. His purity of lan- 
guage shows that he had made that subject a special study in early 



Leonid AS Lent Hamline. 295 

life, and Lis training at the bar previous to Lis conversion gave Lirn 
great precision of style as well as argument. Tlie dignity of Lis posi- 
tion as an embassador of CLrist was never compromised for a moment. 
. . . His words flowed easily, and witliout care ; Lis gestures were 
simple, dictated by tLe sentiments and emotions of tlie sjDcaker ; Lis 
voice smootL, agreeable, round, and deep ; Lis articulation distinct ; 
Lis enunciation full, and Lis delivery witliout labor." 

In tlie opinion of tlie writer BisLop Ilamline was one of tLe clear- 
est tLeologians MetLodism Las known. He studied tLe divine system 
as a wLole, and consequently, wliile Le pressed analysis to almost its 
last condition, yet Lis sermons as a wLole were a grand syntLesis, 
embodying tLe cardinal doctrines of evangelical trutli. It is supposed 
by many tliat Lis sermons were almost wLolly on one topic of tlie 
gospel, but tLe reverse is true. His pulpit dealt w^itli law, depravity, 
repentance, tlie incarnation, justification, providence, retribution, as 
well as witL tlie loftier pliases of Cliristian attainment. It is well to 
give a few specimens of Lis pulpit tliougLts : — • 

Believing and Confessing. 

We must not forget that confession is itself one of the most important works 
of faith. It is the genesis of them all, and its omission betrays a want of ear- 
nestness in religion, a state of heart unfruitful in all good works. He whose zeal 
does not confess will limp and lag in other duties. The power which cannot 
turn her wheels will never move the steamer. As a general rule, the grace which 
has force enough to act will move its subject to proclaim God's saving mercies. 
"I have believed, and therefore have I spoken," was the experience of early 
times. "We also believe, and therefore speak." Here the word tlierefore 
involves a vital principle, namely, faith speaks. Its very instinct is to vent itself 
in words. ... 

To the renewed affections [of speaking faith] the cross is a home tragedy 
where science is a mockery, but the yielding heart dissolves amid the death- 
throes of the Son of God. 

Here is an extract from a sermon on ''God the Righteous Jtidge^'' 
wLicL migLt Lave been written for tlie day of Tyndall, Huxley, and 
Youmans : 

Much is said of the laws of nature, and much to proclaim the folly of those 

who say it. Let it be granted that nature has laws by which her operations are 

now conducted. Then it must be conceded that God upholds those laws, makes 

them efficient, and that their force or efficiency is naught but his power. If 

18 



296 Methodist Bishops. 

these laws be tlie instruments of divine power in ruling the world, they only 
serve to remove the divine hnnd a little farther off. And is God less the gov- 
ernor of the world because, instead of laying his naked hand upon it, he moves 
a spring which produces all other motions around us ? Assume the extremest 
l^osition consistent with the lowest type of Theism — the theory of development 
and order in nature from the operation of laws impressed upon the primitive 
monads of matter — and still, if we reject atheism on the one hand and panthe- 
ism on the other, and adhere to the doctrine of a personal God, we are forced to 
acknowledge him as the Creator, and the wise Being who gave to matter tliose 
laws, and that his intelligence foresaw an end^ and Ids benevolence determined 
that end to be good ; and thus he projected the entire scheme of government for 
beneficient ends. The distance of time, or the multiplication of subordinate 
agencies between the efficient cause and the final end of things can make nothing 
against the wisdom, powder, goodness, and ghuw, much less the reality of the 
government of all things, by the one originating and supreme God. 

Concerning Final Restoration. [From the sermon on ^''The Wages 

of Sinr^ 

Do you still say that God can, in eternity, renew the ruined soul and fashion 
it for pure and heavenly entertainments ? I answer, Yes, and in the same in- 
stant he can, if it be a question of power and independence, transform the 
sainted spirits who, through tears, and pains, and blood, have entered heaven, and 
fashion them for all the woes and agonies of hell. Butlie will not do either. One 
event is just as probable as the other with the self-assumed obligations of his 
eternal truth. He cannot do it. Once he sought the privilege at your hand of 
effecting your renewal. He sent his word, and his ministers, and his provi- 
dence, and his Son, and his Spirit to perform this blessed work. These waited 
all the time probation lasted. He bounded that probation and warned you of 
the fact. You mocked his gracious offers till you had passed its limits, and as 
lie proved to you his goodness and mercy while you lived, he will prove to you 
his decision and his justice. How ? He will suit your wages to your work and 
your reward to your capacity. 

The Bajptismal Covenant. [From the sermon on " Christian 
Bajptism^^^ 

. And now, if, as we have seen, the commission given by Jesus to his disciples 
embraces all nations and every [human] creature ; if infants are capable of sus- 
taining a covenant relation to God by the act of parents; if they have been em- 
braced in every leading covenant which God has made with mankind; if the 
seals of these covenants have always been put upon them; if Jesus Christ pro- 
nounced them members of the Church — what presumption is it in mortals to 
shut the door of the Church which he left so wide open, saying, " Suffer 



Leonidas Lent Hamline. 297 

them to come unto me!" Do they who take on themselves this responsibility 
imagine that they will succeed ? When the millennium shall have come, and 
all nations shall be gathered in. . . shall infants alone be then excluded from the 
visible kingdom of God ? Without baptism they must be excluded. Shall all 
be permitted to approach the tree of life. . . shall all be the seed of the promise 
and the circumcised of the Lord, except little children? Was it left to the 
Gospel alone — that Gospel which was intended to be the most expanded and 
catholic covenant of God with man — that Gospel which was intended to break 
over the contracted bounds of all former covenants and embrace a world — was it 
left to this Gospel of mercy to do what none of the partial and exclusive cove- 
nants had ever done, namely, shut out from its purview and sacraments the 
sinless portion of our race — those that were unfortunate, but not actually guilty 
— tliose whose natures were defiled, but whose wills have not transgressed ? Is 
it true that the good news announced at the advent embraced the disfranchise- 
ment of helpless and suffering infancy which, till then, had been embraced in 
every covenant of mercy ? Blessed Jesus! Thou who hast sanctified infancy by 
jDassing through all its stages and assuming all its weaknesses and prerogatives, 
have mercy on those who would select the objects of thine unconditional compla- 
cency as the only beings in this redeemed world who may not share in thy cov- 
enanted smiles, who may not claim those exceeding great and precious promises 
which were intended as crowning tokens of thy universal and lasting love. 

In his sermon on the " Incarnation " are these words : — 
It is usually understood that Deity is impassive, or in other words is unsus- 
ceptible of suffering. This doctrine may be taught in the Bible and may be 
confirmed by reason ; but I suppose it does not imply that God cannot exercise 
compassion. If so, I, for one, reject it. I know that the lament of Jesus 
over Jerusalem, and his tears at the grave of Lazarus, are ascribed to his 
humanity — and that may be according to truth; but certainly his language and 
behavior on those occasions scarcely equal in pathos the following: How shall 
I give thee up, Ephraim ? how shall I deliver thee, Israel ? how shall I make tliee 
as Admah ? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? Mine heart is turned within me, my 
repentings are kindled together. 

Is not this the language of compassion? It may be said that it is "accom- 
modated to our conceptions." Then it surely teaches that God is not all 
intellect; for it expresses " to our conceptions " the most benevolent and intense 
sympathies. If he is susceptible of no such emotions how are "our concep- 
tions" aided by language which indicates them ? I feel warranted by this and 
many similar texts to maintain, as an article in my creed, that the infinite God is 
susceptible of compassion, or at least of a sentiment which can be designated by 
no better word in our language. I mean by compassion, in this instance, a tenevo- 
lent state of the divine affections, under the Jnnderance of God^s charity or mercy 
through the perverse tempers of free moral agents. 



298 Methodist Bishops. 

From the sketch on ^' Blessedness of Hungering and Thirsting 
after Bighteousness " we take another extract : 

A sinner, careless and reckless, is all at once observed to cliange his deport- 
ment. He grows more and more anxious, till at last a change comes over him in 
an agony of desire. He cries, "Give me pardon or I die." Just then, when he 
hungers and thirsts, pardon comes. 

A sober Christian, well-behaved, is found solemn and anxious. Watch him ; 
he becomes more and more anxious, till his soul is again in a struggle — not for 
pardon, he has it; but he is weary of life through inbred sin, and cries out, — 

" 'Tis worse than death my God to love, 
And not my God alone." 

Thus struggling, another change comes. As a general rule the change comes 
just in the struggle itself, when the soul hungers and thirsts after righteousness, 
— the righteousness of entire sanctification. 

Go to the first one just risen from the altar, where, in an agony as of death he 
had struggled, and ask, What did you seek? rardon. Have you found it? Yes. 
How many of your sins are pardoned? All, all! Dare you believe it? Yes, all f 
'■'■As far as the east is from the icest, so far hath he separated my sins from me." 

Then he is filed ; he can have no more of pardon. Gabriel is not more free 
from guilt than he. " There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them that are 
in Christ Jesus." He hungered for pardon, and is filled with the righteousness 
of pardon. Did one sin remained unpardoned he would not be filled. 

Go to the sanctified — ask him what he hungered and thirsted for? To he holy 
in heart. Have you received it? Yes. How far have you received it? The 
Lord has cleansed me from all my filthiness, and from all my idols. He has 
cleansed me from all unrighteousness.- He hungered and thirsted for holiness and 
is filled. If one pollution remained unwashed away he would not be filled with 
the righteousness of purity. 

These selections, taken almost at random from the two volumes 
collected by Dr. Hibbard, indicate the broad field he traversed. He 
could not have been otherwise than a many-sided preacher of trnth. 
It is true that he often presented and urged, with commanding 
eloquence and wondrous unction, the great experience of Christian 
perfection. His statements of its nature were most felicitous, transpa- 
rent, and in full accordance with the earlier writers of our Church. 
But he preached a whole and full gospel. He had fitting truth for 
souls sphered in sin, for trusting penitence, and for Christian believers, 
crying out for " all the height of holiness." 



Leonid AS Lent Hamline. 299 

The Editor. 

In adition to the high vocation of the preacher, Bishop Hamline 
was disciphned in part, for his future elevation to the episcopate, by a 
particij^ation in editorial toils, vexations, and responsibilities. At the 
General Conference of 1836 Charles Elliott and William Phillips 
were elected editors of the '' Western Christian Advocate." The latter 
died soon after his election, and the Ohio Conference, which had the 
prerogative of filling vacancies, elected L. L. BLamline. The strong, 
majestic preacher entered upon a new life. True, the demands uj^on a 
Church editor were then less onerous in many regards than now, but 
most emphatically, editorial resources were fewer. There were, no 
editorial contributors, no fund provided to pay for matter, and com- 
paratively few in the Church had developed the ability for newspaper 
writing. 

Mr. Hamline carried his high sense of honor and detestation of 
coarseness and vituperation into his editorial rooms. His pen, amid 
the ceaseless temptations of his lot, scarcely wrote a line " which, 
dying, he would wish to blot." In 1840 he was chosen editor of the 
" Ladies' Repository," and the editorship of the books published by the 
Western Book Concern was devolved upon him. The means at his 
disposal were small. Yet it is not too much to say that his success was 
not only respectable, it was really most remarkable. During this quad- 
rennium several editorial articles appeared of such merit as to impress 
the entire Church. Hamline's editorial life was a success. 

It has passed into a proverb that officialism in the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church is injurious to pulpit power. Too many examj)les con- 
firm the rule, and the reasons can easily be given. Preaching is a 
jealous mistress, to whom divided affections are offensive. He who 
permits any other work to come into his life so great as to command 
him from pulpit preparation and pastoral oversight, loses the pos- 
sibility of ever attaining his maximum of preaching power. Editorial 
life is also dissipating in the extreme. Besides all this, a man must be 
charged with the care of souls if his best capabilities as a preacher are 
to be developed. He must preach with a sense of responsibility such 
as only the pastoral office gives. Fully believing all this, yet the writer 
must say that during no part of Bishop Hamline's career was his 
preaching more powerful or successful than during his eight years of 



300 Methodist Bishops. 

tripod-work. He did an immense amount of it. He blazed in revivals, 
and was called in all directions on special occasions. More than proba- 
bly this excessive labor laid the foundation for his prostration of 
health, and occasioned his early retirement from active labor. 

The Bishop. 

How came he to be elected ? The answer is not far to seek. In 
the West, where he was best known, he had steadily risen in pablic 
estimation as an able minister of the 'New Testament. His fame had 
ffone bevond the West, and had become connectional. His editorial 
success had turned the eye of the Church upon him as an able defender 
of Methodist doctrines and polity. In the General Conference of 
1840, thouo;h modest and reticent, observino^ men had seen and meas- 
ured his power. 

The crisis of that celebrated Conference of 1844 brought him at 
last to his feet in a historic speech on the powers of the General Con- 
ference. He made scarcely an allusion to the case then pending, 
called no names, expressed no opinion on the merits of the controversy, 
but with a logic entirely inexorable, and rhetoric truly Ciceronic, he 
pressed his conclusion as to the complete and unquestionable compe- 
tency of the General Conference to deal with all questions of that 
kind, and at its option to vacate either or all of its episcopal chairs. 

The controversies of that stormy time, succeeded by a long train 
of woes, let us hope have passed ; the writer would do nothing to revive 
them. But in this historic sketch it is necessary to say that it was dis- 
covered by that General Conference that the eminent preacher and 
accomplished editor was also an able ecclesiastical jurist, and from that 
hour his election to the episcopacy was a foregone conclusion, and 
none were surprised when, on the 8th of June, 1844, the count of bal- 
lots cast in the Greene-street Church, in the city of New York, L. L. 
Hamline received one hundred and two votes, a majority of the w^hole, 
and was declared duly elected. 

On the 12th of June, only four days after his election, he was in 
the chair, presiding over the deliberations of the New York Confer- 
ence, assisting Bishop Hedding. On the 19th of the same month he 
opened his first Conference, the Troy, at Poultney, Yt., and there 
occurred one of those severe shocks of sickness prophetic of the break- 



Leonidas Lent Hamline. 301 

ing down wliicli was to compel liis early retiring from the place of 
primus inter pares. 

As a Conference president, as long as his health continued even 
tolerably firm, he was remarkable for solemnity and efficiency. He 
promptly repressed every tendency to levity by suggestions of a devo- 
tional character. There were not wanting those who felt that he 
sometimes pressed this feature of his administration too far. A little 
pleasantry occasionally enlivens business, checks asperity, and lubri- 
cates the heavy wheels of work. Bishop Hamline inclined to look 
upon it as beneath the dignity of a grave convocation of Christian 
ministers, who were pledged to do every thing as in the immediate 
presence of God, and that communion with God was the best prepara- 
tion for the transaction of the solemn functions of such a body. 

His rulings upon points of order were ready and rarely con- 
troverted. Without parliamentary finesse he had thoroughly mastered 
parliamentary detail. His decisions of law points were clear. His 
judicial training had strengthened his naturally legal turn of mind. 
In the period of his episcopacy trials of traveling preachers mostly 
occurred in open Conference, and Bishop Hamline had his share, some 
of them being of an unusually perplexing character. Yet he met the 
expectations of the Church in this regard. 

There were also occurrences demanding from him action most 
painful to himself and for which the past had afforded no precedent. 
Exhausting all possible forbearance and courtesy, at the last his posi- 
tion was taken quietly, with dignity, but with granite firmness. The 
senior members of the Ohio Conference will distinctly remember one 
memorable instance of this kind. 

In his Conference sermons he preserved the same general sweep 
of which mention is made above, but it is due to say that he attended 
no Annual Conference where he did not clearly state and earnestly 
commend the great experience of " being made perfect in love." 
Holding, as he did, that this is a grand distinguishing feature of Meth- 
odism, and a secret of religious success, he could not restrain either 
testimony or exhortation. 

It was known at the time of his election to the episcopacy that his 
health was frail, and the development of aggravated disease of the 
heart soon caused him to feel that he was constantly preaching under 



302 Methodist Bishops. 

the shadow of the cloud, and also occasioned painful apprehension 
throughout the Church that his useful life would be cut short. But 
down to 1850 there was no abatement of labor. He held his Confer- 
ences, and added to ordinary routine labor; he labored in revivals, 
delivered missionary addresses, preached ahnost constantly. The 
record of those six years' work is absolutely amazing. " In labors 
more abundant," may well be said of him. 

From 1850 to 1852 his work w^as, per force, less. His health was 
broken; he attended some Conferences, preached occasionally, and 
did what he could. As the General Conference of 1852 approached, 
he carefully considered his duty, and after protracted jDrayer and medi- 
tation decided to resign the episcopal office. It was not broken health 
alone which led him to this decision, or a desire to be entirely free from 
care. He was actuated by a sense of high consistency. In 1841 he 
held and maintained with great force that the Methodist episcopate is 
not an exalted order of the holy ministry, but an office ', — of grave 
responsibility and dignity, it is true, but still an office, and one which 
can be vacated for disqualification by the General Conference without 
the formality of an impeachment, or by the voluntary retirement of 
the officer. He had never hesitated to wdeld its full authority if occa- 
sion required ; and now he would do the Church the service of show- 
ing, by example, that it could be vacated by the resignation of an 
incumbent. He meant in 1852 to emphasize the doctrine he taught 
eight years before. 

Finding that he could not reach Boston, the seat of the General 
Conference, he addressed to that body a letter, in which he recited the 
condition of his health at the time of his election, its subsequent 
improvement, and the work of six years ; its failure in 1850, and the 
judgment of eminent physicians that his heart was so diseased as to 
forbid future labor. He adds : — 

Under my official responsibilities, to be unable to discharge my duties was an 
affliction, especially as it bore heavily on the effective superintendents; but I was 
comforted under this affliction, and being persuaded that I had done all I could, 
more than physicians and counseling friends deemed incumbent or even war- 
rantable, I have much of the time been calmly and cheerfully re-signed to this 
trying inactivit}^, and now I think that the circumstances warrant my declining 
the episcopal office. 



Leonid AS Lent Hamline. 303 

Eiglit years ago I felt that divine Providence had strangely called me to the 
office; I now feel that the same Providence permits me to retire. I therefore 
tender my resignation, and request to be released from my official responsibilities 
as soon as the way shall be prepared by the action of the episcopal committee. 

Relieved of my official obligations, I think of nothing but cleaving to Christ 
witli all my heart, and in my feeble retirement aiding to promote his blessed 
cause. I mourn over my unvvorthiness, both personal and official, but trust in 
our great Prophet, Priest, and King, for acquittal, cleansing, and eternal life. 

The Committee on Episcopacy reported on this letter an expression 
*' of sympathy with our beloved superintendent in his afflictions;" 
also recommended the passage of his character, and that the resig- 
nation be accepted. A brief, bnt historic, debate followed. And the 
Unal action of acceptance was an assertion of the Low-Clmrch theory 
of the Episcopacy. An additional resolution was moved by John A. 
Collins, and adopted, in which the Conference voted, " That the 
bishops be, and hereby are, respectfully requested to convey to Bisliop 
Hamline the acceptance of his resignation as a superintendent of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church by the General Conference, accompanied 
with a communication expressing the profound regret of this body 
that the condition of his health has, in his judgment, rendered it 
proper for him to relinquish his official position ; assuring him also of 
our continued confidence and affection, and that our fervent prayers 
will be offered to the throne of grace that his health may be restored, 
and his life prolonged to the Church." 

Such was the termination of his episcopal career, and it was 
worthy of the man. He had asserted a grave principle, he now 
vindicated it in his own person, and the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
by accepting his proffered retirement, forever rendered prelacy impos- 
sible in its episcopacy. 

Evening. 
And now with his intellectual powers in their golden maturity, 
and with such ripe experience as would richly endow him for his 
work, with fields white to the harvest, Mr. Hamline calmly hangs his 
sickle on the wall and retires from the field. He had known unsparing 
toil, and comprehended the meaning of the words " hard work," but 
the Master had never set him so difficult a task as was now before 
him. But he accepted it cheerfully. 



304 Methodist Bishops. 

His property had increased in value, and lie made liberal donations 
to tlie various causes of Christian benevolence. Dr. Elliott says, " his 
liberality in distribution of his temporal means was liberal to a fault." 
Twenty -five thousand dollars were given to a Western college, besides 
most liberal donations to others, and various grants made to Churches 
and the great societies. He did not escape sharp criticism from some 
whose applications were denied. He selected his own objects of 
beneficence, and aided them according to his own carefully chosen 
plan, and endured the murmurs of the disappointed with all meekness. 

l^OT was this all ; before he should choose that quiet western home, 
where the evening of his daj^s was to be spent, a storm of unprec- 
edented violence was to burst ujDon him. Charges of gravest character 
were made by a party who, like himself, was responsible to an 
Annual Conference. It is enough to say that the Conference, deem- 
ing the charges clearly malicious, and regarding them as deliberate 
slander, by a unanimous vote expelled the offender. He availed 
himself of his privilege of appeal, and after a protracted hearing of 
the appellant, the General Conference affirmed the decision of the 
Cincinnati Conference. Bishop Hamline did not attend the latter 
Conference during the investigation, but, though his character 
appeared to be suspended upon the result, he left all to God and 
the Church, remaining at his residence in Schenectady. 

The years 1853, 1854 were mostly spent in Hillsdale, l^ew York. 
He returned to Schenectady and remained there until 1857, when the 
family removed to Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, the place providentially chosen 
as the scene of his latest sufferings and triumphs, and from whence 
his ascension was to be made. Here the still more rapid decline of 
his health rendered his remaining necessary. All who knew him 
during this period of his life saw that he was ripening rapidly for 
glory. His correspondence was redolent of heaven, and in the 
sharpest and sorest of physical sufferings he was w^onderfully sus- 
tained. In 1860 he thus wrote: 

I am now impelled to write down, for my family, intimate friends, and for 
my own edification, a few of God's dealings with my poor soul. I have witli 
comfort to myself spent thirty-two years in the ministry of God's holy word, 
and believe the Lord called me to the work. ... I am thankful now^, in closing 
up life and its labors, that 1 did not refu>e to enter on the work and strive to 



Leonidas Lent Hamline. 305 

preach Christ. . . . For eight years I have been superannuated, and God lias 
tried me as silver is tried ; but he has often sweetened those trials by his presence 
in a marvelous manner, and now, day by day, my fellowship is with the Father 
and his Son Jesus Christ. 

In this retirement and suffering his mind was active. He sur- 
veyed the great mission field of the Church, saw the difficulties and 
the possibilities as with an eagle's eye, and from his sick room sent 
words of cheer and exhortation. He was thoroughly roused at the 
announcement of the terrible Civil War, and his letters to Senator 
Harlan and others show not only an intense loyalty, but also a wise 
prevision of the measures necessary to insure peace. 

About the first of July, 1863, I visited him. Providentially, in 
one of my two calls, I found him comfortable, and able to converse 
freely. His" home w^as plain, but delightful. Adjoining the main 
building he had caused a class-room to be constructed, and su]3plied 
with all the appurtenances of worship. Here was his Bethel. He 
w^as no longer able to go to the public service, but in that consecrated 
room choice spirits came to enjoy w^ith him and his excellent wife 
the communion of saints. There he sometimes expounded briefly the 
great and special promises, or listened to others, and there sometimes 
he bowed at the holy Supper. In appearance he had greatly changed. 
His hair was wdiite, but retained its thickness, wdiile his full beard 
was of a silver shade. His appearance was eminently patriarchal. 
At the second call, after disposing of an item of business relating to a 
church site on his property in Chicago, former days, past events, 
common friends, the state of the Church and the country, were talked 
over. His voice had its old sweetness, and his style was never clearer 
or more forcible. Some remarks on the relations of Christians to 
scientific thought, and sense expositions of holy writ, I regret not 
having preserved. His spiritual sky was clear, and the joy-birds came 
at morning and evening to accompany his devotions. 

Through all of 1864 his approach to the grave grew perceptibly 
more rapid, his sufferings grew sharper, and his faith more constant 
and radiant. He dwelt lovingly upon the power of Christ to save 
unto the uttermost ; and on the depth, sweetness, and power of perfect 
love. The brain became so abnormally sensitive that conversation 
was impossible, the voice even of a friend jarring him fearfully, and 



806 Methodist Bishops. 

conversation was bj means of a slate. Yet ever and anon the tide of 
love surged over, and joyful or sublimelj^ trustful whispers witnessed 
that all was going on well. At times he gave most thrilling exhor- 
tations, and again would break forth into prayers sublimely compre- 
hensive, and resplendent Avith glowing faith. One of the last of his 
utterances is recorded by a friend as follows : — 

I do not want one thought tliat is not tit for heaven. I have of late thought 
much of that, and when any wrong thought comes into my mind I say, That is 
not fit for heaven, till I get rid of it. . . . Jesus is able to give us victory over 
our hearts. O wonderful! wonderful! He came to seek and to save that 
which was lost. He goes out and seeks them, hunts them up and saves them. 
Just think of it — out seeking those that are wandering and bringing them back. 

... I K^:OW THIS TO BE TRUE." 

At last, on the 23d of March, 1865, the final struggle came in 
terrific physical agony. Few have endured more suffering in the last 
hour. He endured it with patience until the day which had com- 
menced with fervent prayer was consummated by the bliss of heaven. 

His old friend, Dr. Charles Elliott, ofiiciated at his funeral. 

He was temporarily interred at Mount Pleasant, and subsequently 
removed to Kosehill Cemetery, between Chicago and Evanston, where 
a slab of gray Scottish syenite marks his grave, inscribed simply Leox- 
iDAS L. Ha^ilixe. There is no title and no panegyric. In accord- 
ance with the request of the sleeper no words are added. There is 
nothing which tells that all that could die of the strong thinker, the 
majestic preacher, and eminent bishop, is there buried. May not his 
own words be fitly read at his grave ? 

The grave of every saint is blessed. Jesus wrought the work when lie lay 
in the tomb. He is, therefore, said to have perfumed the grave, because as 
fragrance delights our senses, so, through his death and burial, the tomb has 
pleasant odors. Its prisoners rest in hope. Christ has almost wedded the grave 
and the everlasting throne. He passed from crucifixion to burial, and from 
burial to heaven. Thus, greatly to our comfort, he has blended in close union 
death, the grave, and the glory which shall follow. 

The writer of the above sketch acknowledges material obligations 
to the admirable volumes collected and edited by Dr. E. G. Hibbard, 
" Hamline's Works," and also to '' The Life and Letters of Leonidas 
L. Hamline," by Walter C. Palmer, M.D. 



WW 





^2>^^-^^' 



Edmund Storer Janes. 



BY KEV. JAMES M. BUCKLEY, D.D. 



IN presenting to our readers a sketch of the life of Bishop Edmund 
Storer Janes, one of the most revered of the " dear fathers and 
brethren " of the Methodist Episcopal Clmrch, so widely known and 
but recently deceased, we are met at the beginning by peculiar diffi- 
culties. 

To record facts known to the whole Church, and such facts only, 
would seem barren of interest ; to omit them would conceal from all 
living who were not personally acquainted w^ith our subject, and from 
the new generation of Methodists about to enter and to continue enter- 
ing the Church for which he did so much, the materials necessary 
to the formation of a true idea of the man and of his work 

Another perplexity arises from the completeness and symmetry of 
his career. He was not a " man of war," nor was he the hero of 
thrilling adventures, nor yet the leader of a party. He was neither 
eccentric in manners, nor of extraordinary presence, nor did he seek 
notoriety. He was not desirous of attracting attention outside of his 
own denomination, nor did he seek to come before the public in 
the secular or even in the religious press. He was not a writer of 
books, nor a lecturer, nor found in fashionable centers, literary, com- 
mercial, or social. He was never impeached or attacked, and never 
assailed others ; and left to those who enjoyed it or had taste or time 
for it, the conception and promotion of brilliant schemes in Church 
and State. He was never shipwrecked nor imprisoned, nor charged 
with immorality or ministerial or personal " indiscretion." 

Thus, as the artist finds it more difficult to make a striking picture 
in representing a dome than in portraying a more irregular structure ; 
so, from the very completeness of the character of Bishop Janes, and 
his devotion to the work of his life, it becomes more difficult to 
worthily represent that life. 

If the task be more perplexing it is, nevertheless, more pleasant ; 



310 ■ Methodist Bishops. 

for liere, at least, tliere is nothing to conceal, notliing to varnish, little 
to extenuate. It is also important, for the life to be portrayed for 
imitation is not that which dazzles, bnt that which leads those who 
emulate it to go about doing good. 

And let it not be thought there is a paucity of materials out of 
which to weave an interesting narrative. The difference we point out 
is that between the orbit of a planet and the apparently eccentric 
movements of a comet or a meteor. It is to the superficial observer 
only that the latter may be more striking than the former. The 
astronomer is equally impressed by the phenomena of law and force 
wherever they are manifested ; and those who reflect on the career of 
Bishop E. S. Janes, and are competent to weigh it, will accord to him 
as lofty a tribute as any friends, however ardent, if discriminating, 
would desire. 

The outline facts of his life until he enters the ministry are as 
follows : He was the son of Benjamin and Sarah Janes, who resided 
at the time of his birth at the small town of Sheffield, Massachusetts. 
The date of his birth is April 27, 1807, and he was named Edmund 
Storer Janes. His father was a carpenter in moderate circumstances ; 
that is, he had saved something, but not enough to live without strict 
attention to business, which in that trade in a country place means 
exposure and hard work. The sons of such parents have the great 
advantage, for the loss of wdiich no other inheritance can compensate 
them, of being early impressed with the necessity of taking care of 
themselves, of earning their living, and making their own way in the 
world. Hence the "simjole annals" of his early life are in these 
words: "He took care of himself, working on a farm in the summer 
and going to school in the winter, until he was seventeen years old." 
To how many of the most influential and learned men of this country, 
in every denomination and profession, in the commercial and political 
worlds, would these words not apply ? A small minority. Such 
labors imposed on the youth of fifty years ago, and often at the pres- 
ent time, imply no less affection in the hearts of j)arents than is felt 
b}^ those who gratify every propeusity or caprice of their children by 
lavish expenditure. But " necessity knows no law," and often the 
father and mother looked upon the hard working boy with unutter- 
able love and pity. But the pity was misplaced, for a man was grow- 



Edmund Stoker Janes. 311 

ing. Childhood was to be transient and j^i'eliminary, not perpetual. 
He improved rapidly, and from the time he was seventeen until he 
was twenty he taught scliool continuously. He is said to have been 
converted, and to have united witli the Methodist Episcopal Churcli, 
when he was but thirteen years of age. In his twentieth year he 
began the study of law, and was admitted to the bar. It is also af- 
firmed that the " sudden death of his prospective partner led him to 
serious reflection, and he gave himself to the work of the ministry." 
ThiS' may or may not have been the deciding cause. Yery often 
young men hesitate a long time, and when they reach a decision it is 
attributed to the last improtant circumstance which preceded the 
final action. There is every reason to suppose that Edmund S. Janes, 
if he had retained his piety, sooner or later would have found his 
way into the ministry whether any thing extraordinary had occurred 
or not. 

To many characters this remark would not apply ; but his whole 
nature would have cried out for entire devotion to ministerial life, 
and would have been restless without it. Nor would the Church have 
overlooked his gifts, nor the Spirit have failed to guide him. Ex- 
ternal events had their due effect, but it is impossible that he never 
thought earnestly of the ministry till a " sudden death led him to 
serious reflection." 

In the year 1830 he was received into the Philadelphia Conference 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church " on trial." The Conference at 
that time included the State of New Jersey within its limits, and 
opposite the word Elizabethtown, in the Minutes for 1830, we find 
the name of E. S. Janes ; and the same entry was made in 1831. In 
1832, having remained during the full term of two years, he was 
stationed at Orange, and re-appointed at the next session of the Con- 
ference. During these four years he exhibited business qualities of a 
high order ; in particular a singular clearness of statement, which made 
financial questions intelligible and not uninteresting to an ordinary 
mind, and so, impressive to an audience. This led to his appointment, 
in 1834, as agent for Dickinson College. In 1835 he was re-appointed 
to this position, having as his colleague Charles Pitman. The " Cyclo- 
pedia of Methodism" states that he was appointed agent for Dickinson 
College in 1838. But reference to the Miuutes of the Philadelphia 



312 Methodist Bishops. 

Conference would liave preserved the compiler of the article from 
the error. In 1836 he was stationed at the Fifth-street Church, 
in Philadelphia, and in 1837 he was transferred to Nazareth, in the 
same city, and re-appointed in 1838. At the close of his full term at 
Kazareth his connection with the Philadelphia Conference ended by 
his being transferred to the ISTew York Conference and made the 
pastor of the Mulberry-street Church. This society was the founda- 
tion of the present St. Paul's. Here he remained two years. The 
same qualities which led to his appointment to the agency of Dickin- 
son College, and which he had signally exhibited in the prosecution of 
that work, now led to his selection as '' the financial secretary of the 
American Bible Society." This position he filled until he was elected 
in June, 1811, to the ofiice of bishop. 

In 1811, 1812, and '43 his name appears in the "Minutes of the 
'New York Conference" as appointed financial secretary of the 
American Bible Society ; but in 1844 no allusion whatever is made 
to him. It would be impossible to determine from a study of the 
"Minutes" of 1844 whether he had died, withdrawn, been expelled, 
become superannuate or supernumerary, located, or been trans- 
ferred. His name simply disappears. The explanation of which is, 
that in 1844 the ^ew York Conference did not assemble till June 
12, after the adjournment of the General Conference in the same 
city; but at that General Conference E. S. Janes had been made 
a bishop ; and as the Conference had no further jurisdiction over 
him, the secretary had no right to call his name, nor could his 
character be passed upon there. It would appear, however, that 
some entry should have been made to complete the account of all 
who, in 1843, had received appointments at that Conference. The 
custom now becoming general, of publishing the names and histo- 
ries in epitome of the members of the Conference at the close of 
the " Minutes," and of continuing in the list the name of any mem- 
ber of the Conference who may have been elected bishop, will, 
perhaps, cover this point. From 1844 imtil his death he was 
engaged in the duties of the episcopal office. 

When the General Conference met, in 1840, the bishops were 
Eobert K. Koberts, Joshua Soule, Elijah Hedding, James 0. Andrew, 
Beverly Waugh, Thomas A. Morris. In the interval Eobert E. Eoberts 



Edmund Storer Janes. 313 

had died, so that Joshua Soiile became the senior bishop, and the 
others remained the same, and signed the address to the General 
Conference of 1844. At that Conference James O. Andrew was 
disqualified to act excej)t on conditions with which he refused to 
comply. Leonidas L. Hamline and Edmund Storer Janes were 
elected and ordained, and the records were attested by Joshua Soule, 
Elijah Hedding, Beverly Waugh, Thomas A. Morris, Leonidas L. 
Hamline, and Edmund Storer Janes. 

Subsequently the Church w^as divided, so that E. S. Janes was 
the last bishop to receive the vote of the original undivided Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church. Soon afterward the Southern Conferences 
seceded and established the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and 
the senior bishop, Joshua Soule, and Bishop Andrew, went with them. 
In 1852 Bishop 'Hedding died, in 1858 Bishop Waugh also died, and 
in 18Y4 Bishop Morris ended his long life. In 1852 Bishop Hamline 
resigned, which left Thomas A, Morris senior bishop ; but he for 
many years being very infirm, and necessarily inactive. Bishop Janes 
was practically the senior bishop for nearly twenty years. 

The circumstances of his election were remarkable. In the first 
place, he was only thirty-seven years old; the youngest man ever 
elected bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United 
States. R. R. Roberts and James O. Andrew were thirty-eight ; 
Francis Asbury, thirty-nine ; and Joshua Soule thirty-nine when he 
was first elected and declined, and forty-three when he was ordained. 
Bishops Whatcoat and Peck were over sixty ; M'Kendree, Scott, 
Thomson, Kingsley, Bowman, Harris, Foster, and Haven^ were over 
fifty ; and George, Hedding, Emory, Waugh, Fisk, (who declined,) 
Hamline, Simpson, Ames, Clark, Wiley, Merrill, Andrews, were 
over forty ; and seven of these last nearer fifty than forty. O. C. 
Baker lacked a few weeks of being forty, and T. A. Morris had 
just passed his fortieth birthday. It is undoubtedly the case, whether 
it bodes good or ill, that the importance attached to age in this 
country, both in Church and State, as one of the essential qualifica- 
tions for positions of unusual responsibility, has steadily diminished ; 
but the ages of the bishops elected in the Methodist Episcopal Church 
for the past forty years — in fact, from the beginning — have been suf- 
ficiently advanced, in view of the work demanded of them. That, 
19 



314 Methodist Bishops. 

however, at tlie most critical period in the history of the denomina- 
tion the youngest man ever elected shonld have been placed in that 
position, is a fact worthy of special examination. 

It is also true that E. S. Janes had never been a member of any 
General Conference, and was not a member of that which elected 
him. The following extract from the ''Journal of the General Con- 
ference of 1844," is also of great significance :^- 

First ballot for bishops : On counting the votes cast in the first ballot, it 
was ascertained that no one had received a majority of all the votes. The 
chair therefore announced that there was no choice. On counting the votes 
in the second balloting it appeared that there was a larger nnmber of votes 
than members of Conference. . . . Dr. Capers moved that the Conference, by 
a rising vote, confirm the election of Edmund S. Janes. 

This did not prevail, and on the third ballot L. L. Hamline and 
Edmnnd S. Janes were elected. 

The philosophy of the election of this yonng man and of the 
motion of Dr. Capers, the leader of the Sonth Carolina Conference, 
to elect him by acclamation, now deserves attention. The piety, pru- 
dence, and excellent intellectual qualities of E. S. Janes had become 
widely knoT\Ti. As agent of Dickinson College, and as financial 
secretary of the American Bible Society, he had made many per- 
sonal friends in the South, and in both positions there was not only 
no need for him to take a partisan attitude, but it would have been 
fatal to his success if he had done so. Literature and the Bible are 
nonpartisan, whatever the use made of them in advocacy of special 
causes. 

As he was not a member of the General Conference of 1844, he 
had no responsible connection with the fierce and heated controver- 
sies that took place in that assembly, but preserved relations of 
" amity and comity " with the members from all sections. 

'^o distinctively Southern man could have been elected at that 
Conference, and not more than one l^orthern man who took an 
active part in the controversy. In times of great commotion one 
leader will generally concentrate the full strength of those whom 
he represents, but upon others there will be division. Hamline was 
elected on the issue which he represented, but none of the other 
leaders could have been. Many in the ^N'orth had no objection to 



Edmund Stoker Janes. 815 

Bishop Janes, and none in the Sonth had. So tliat Dr. Capers had 
it in his heart to move to make his election unanimous. This 
probably cansed some of the more radical of the Northern delegates 
to regard E. S. Janes with suspicion. But if he had been a member 
of the General Conference he would have been drawn into the 
debates or would have tried to preserve a noncommittal position. 
If he had attempted the latter he would have failed, and "would 
have fallen to the ground between two stools." In the former case, 
his youth and the bitterness of feeling excited, would have rendered 
his election impossible. An attentive study of the situation leads 
to the conclusion that his election resulted from his not being a 
member of the General Conference, his occupying positions that 
shielded him from controversy, his acquaintance with, and the high 
esteem in which he was held in, the South, the desire of many to 
have one bishop who would be equally acceptable North and South, 
the general recognition of his fitness for the position, and the impos- 
sibility of alleging any thing against him. 

If it be mentioned that his pre-eminent fitness alone is sufficient 
to explain it, we reply that his pre-eminent fitness was then undemon- 
strated ; it was rendered probable by his previous career, and though 
that probability under ordinary circumstances might have led to his 
election later in life, it is improbable that had he taken an active part 
either in or out of the General Conference in the controversies then 
raging, he w^ould at that time have been elected one of the bishops of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Since that event his career has been known to the whole Church ; 
and has afforded abundant material for an analysis of his intellectual 
and moral endowments, as well as a delineation of his personal qual- 
ities. 

His religious character had several strongly marked features, of 
which the following may be pointed out as alike obvious and es- 
timable. He was a man of inflexible uprightness. What he believed 
to be right he did not shrink from, and his views of the right were 
generally clear and consistent. He was " happy in that he condemned 
not himself in the things which he allowed." His conscientiousness 
appeared to be extreme, and extended to the smallest details of duty as 
scrupulously as to the great outlines of moral and religious obligation. 



316 Methodist Bishops. 

This rendered liim tlioroiighlr reliable. Every thing he felt that 
he ought to do he endeavored to do ; whatever he promised he surely 
performed. He was characterized by great spirituality — we may say, 
TinnsTial spirituality ; but not of the dreamy, contemplative sort, which 
at the best is but a reverie, and at the worst a delusion, but genuine 
devotion that never lost sight of duty. This gave him an average 
power far greater than that of those sometimes appearing to sweep 
the skies in a chariot of fire, bnt nsnally either creejDing the ground 
or hidden in the clouds of mysticism. He was a man of great liber- 
ahty ; ready to give, giving both from principle and impulse. His 
religion did not obstruct the flow of natural generosity, or weigh 
every act of kindness ; bnt nsnally the impulse prompted the deed, and 
reason interpreting Christian principle was ofttimes called in rather to 
restrain than to impel. 0.f some it may be said, that they never give 
except when duty calls ; of him it might be said, that he seldom 
restrained his benevolent impulses except when duty required. He 
was a man of regular religious habits and of seriousness ; and when 
he prayed, he prayed for that which most absorbed him at the time, 
rather than repeated an inventory of suitable petitions. Of his 
intellectual qualities it may be observed that he had clearness of 
perception and tenacity of grasp, two things quite different and not 
always united, and it is difficult to determine which is the more 
essential : clearness without tenacity being incompatible with energy 
and influence, and tenacity without clearness degenerating into mere 
brute obstinacy. 

He had an indomitable will. In that respect he was a study. 
With mildness of manner, softness of voice, and deep religiousness, 
there was never a man more determined and persistent than he. 
Growing out of this he had unsurpassed perseverance. This he illus- 
trated on every occasion, and none attest it more thoroughly than 
those whom he befriended. A merchant now of high standing came 
to ^ew York twenty years ago poor and sick, with a family to support ; 
Bishop Janes, becoming interested in him, determined to get him a 
position, and did so after repeated trials. The merchant has since 
informed the writer that he never saw such perseverance, and that it in- 
spired him with the purpose to succeed ; for if another, so pressed with 
care as was Bishop Janes, could do so much for him, what should he 



Edmund Stoker Janes. 317 

not do for himseK ? His acquirements were great. "We have already 
spoken of his study of the law, and have now to add that during his 
residence in Philadelphia he thoroughly pursued the study of med- 
icine, not designing practice as a physician, but for the love of 
knowledge and to further qualify himself for the prosecution of his 
work in the ministry. He understood the mutual helpfulness of the 
professions, and knew that human nature is many-sided, and that 
many maladies are not curable by either spiritual or physical medica- 
ments alone. His reading and acquisitions were in these fields rather 
than in general literature ; although he had accumulated considerable 
information in all departments of thought and action. His self- 
possession certainly was unusual. If he was ever consciously em- 
barrassed in later years he never exposed it to the most careful 
scrutiny. 

On one occasion he gave to the writer certain suggestions concern- 
ing public speaking, which depended upon the speaker's being entirely 
self-possessed. On the w^riter's observing that those suggestions 
would not be of the slightest use if the speaker lost his self-control, 
Bishop Janes replied : "A minister of our Lord Jesus Christ who 
means to do his duty, and has the Holy Spirit to keep him, ought 
always to be self-possessed. What right has such a man to be em- 
barrassed ? " Once, when he w^as preaching in California, the lights 
suddenly went out, on which the bishop remarked: "The gos23el 
light shineth in dark places," and went on with his discourse, the 
audience remaining quiet until lights were brought. It has been 
observed that men who attain such a high degree of self-control 
generally pay a very high price for it, no less than the loss of oratorio 
fervor — of the susceptibility of being thorougly aroused by a subject 
or an occasion. But Bishop Janes retained that susceptibility to the 
very last, and in his sermons, platform addresses, and debates in the 
missionary and other boards with which he was connected, would 
often thrill and sometimes astonish his hearers, and carry his j)oint as 
much by his fervency as by the weight of the considerations which he 
submitted. 

He was a man of great readiness in speech ; and had a mastery of 
two great elements in a perfect style, namely, simplicity and purity of 
language. His most unaffected talks, stenographically reported, read 



318 Methodist Bishops. 

like extracts from some of the more chaste and terse of the old 
English divines. In the second year of the writer's ministry he 
formed the acquaintance of a lawyer noted for his critical knowledge 
of the English language, who was at that time, had been for many 
years, and continued for a long time, the superintendent of the board 
of education in his native city. He was not a member of the Method- 
ist Episcopal Church, nor of any other. Said he to the author : 
" What has become of that small man, a minister of your Church 
who traveled through this country twenty years ago representing the 
American Bible Society ? " On being told that he was then bishop, he 
rephed : " He spoke the purest English of all the ministers whom I 
have heard. I thought his name was Janes, and knew that there was 
a bishop of that name, but was not aware that he was the same. I 
have always remembered him as a master of his native tongue." 

He spoke extemporaneously in the Attic simplicity with which 
Bishop Doane, of New Jersey, wrote ; both modeled on Addison 
rather than on the ponderous Johnson, or the florid speakers and 
writers since so popular. The chief faults of extemjDoraneous speech 
are extravagance, repetition, and want of proportion. It will be 
conceded that the sermons and addresses of Bishop Janes were free 
from these defects. He often expressed the same ideas in different 
language, but not in the same sermon or address ; and when he 
repeated his sermons they were never verbatim, much being added 
or omitted, and the j^arts retained couched in other forms of speech. 

He never, or very seldom, wrote his sermons, but prepared a 
speech resembling a lawyer's brief. Yet that he could compose in 
the best style, the "Bishops' Address to the General Conference of 
1876" abimdantly shows, since, though the expression of all the bish- 
ops, and containing suggestions from all, it was principally, and its 
composition wholly, the work of Bishop Janes. So fine a piece of 
work was it, that it extorted from one of the most competent and yet 
merciless critics in that body the tribute, ''The finest thing he ever 
did or ever will do, even if he has been incubating it for months." 

He was a man of great practical sagacity, which he exhibited in 
his dealing with the much-debated questions of lay delegation and 
tlie management of the Book Concern. His judgment of measures 
was, however, more generally correct than his estimate of men. In 



Edmund Stoker Janes. 319 

the former he rarely failed, but in the latter he was often deceived 
and imposed upon. In fact, it may be assumed that this was the 
chief, perhaps the. only point, where his penetration was often at 
fault. 

As a presiding officer his abilities were of a high order, his nat- 
ural clearness, and legal training, fitted him for a parliamentarian. 
If his somewhat autocratic temper occasionally led him to infringe 
upon the prerogatives of the assembly in his desire to facilitate 
the business, the moment his attention was called to it his decis- 
ions would be conformed to the strict letter of the law. Of his 
industry it is only necessary to say that he kej)t the rules laid 
,down by Wesley ; he was " never unemployed," " never triflingly 
employed, never remained any longer at any one place than was 
strictly necessary." 

We may now offer some reflections upon his views as affect- 
ing his discharge of his episcopal functions. He had a high esti- 
mate of the powers, responsibilities, duties, and prerogatives of his 
office. He was in thought and feeling, yet in no bad sense, 
" every inch a bishop." Coming to the position of senior bi&hop 
in tlie maturity of his powers, on account of having been elected 
at the age of thirty-seven, and the early retirement of L. L. 
Hamline, responsibilities were early placed upon him which devel- 
oped a prelatical tendency, which, had it not been modified by 
his unfeigned humility and genuine spirituality would have been 
inharmonious with the genius of Methodism ; but as it was thus 
modified, the result was beneficent. 

In the Roman Catholic Church he would have taken rank with 
the most renowned of confessors and propagandists, for the tend- 
ency of his mind was to place the Church, and loyalty to the 
Church, before all human interests and passions. Ease, rest, pleas- 
ure, were mere words to him. He carried every detail of the 
Church on his own mind; and in his own house he was, through 
the pressure of episcopal duty, " only a visitor," yet ever the most 
delightful one the household entertained. His theories concerning 
work would ruin many, but he carried them into practice himself. 
He did not " lay burdens grievous to be borne upon other men," 
without being willing to bear as much. 



320 Methodist Bishops. 

The "cabinet." when lie held the Conference, was no place of 
ease, nor were the presiding elders able to spend much time in 
society life; but to the last moment of the session he kept them 
at work conscientiously comparing, adjusting, changing, in the hope 
of doing just that which was, all things considered, the best thing 
to be done. With all his marvelous self-possession he never could 
throw off the weight of care. He recognized the fact that Meth- 
odism is in a state of transition; and when changes w^hicli he did 
not originally approve became inevitable, instead of vainly denounc- 
ing the innovation, and exalting the past at the expense of the 
present, he applied himself to making the most of the situation for 
the Church. Thus, though not in the outset in favor of the intro- 
duction of laymen into the General Conference, when he saw that 
it would either prevail or be lost by a small deficiency, the latter 
alternative, if it became a fact, to be followed by further agitation 
and final reversal, he threw his influence poAverfully in favor of the 
movement, and assisted in its subsequent adjustment by friendly 
and sagacious counsels. 

In like manner, for many years, he doubted the expediency of 
distinctive theological institutions in the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
fearing that they would tend to assimilate Methodist preaching to 
the cold and scholastic style formerly general in other denomina- 
tions, and that they might become hot-beds of heresy ; but when 
they were established he exhibited the liveliest interest in them, 
and expressed himself gratified with their progress and influence 
thus far. 

The question may arise in the mind of the reader whether a 
mere eulogy is designed, and not a just analysis of the man and his 
work. To this it is replied that we have reserved to this part of 
our sketch the impediments with which he had to contend. 

His "personal appearance was weak," until long after he had 
passed middle life ; he seemed to lack masculine vigor ; in fact, his 
appearance would be described as efleminate. Like many others, 
however, to whom this remark would apply in early life, as he grew 
older he greatly increased in weight, so that for the last tw^enty 
years he would not have been called a " little man," except in con- 
trast with some of his gigantic colleagues, nor did he wear the aspect 



Edmund Stoker Janes. 321 

of feebleness. His voice also was weak, high pitched, and of lim- 
ited compass, having no natural strength in the lower tones. It 
did not, therefore, counteract the impression produced by his 
appearance, but intensified it. It had, however, two redeeming 
qualities — it was exceedingly clear, and it was musical ; and he 
had attained great distinctness of utterance, and in a quiet assem- 
bly, however large, he was better heard, or at least more easily 
understood, than many speakers possessing sonorous voices. He 
could not command a tumultuous assembly, and when in England, 
on being introduced to a vast concourse in a building of rather 
inferior acoustic properties, he could not make himself heard. As 
is always the case in England, and often every-where, an audience 
that cannot hear becomes noisy, and, after a few ineffective at- 
tempts to command attention, Bisli023 Janes took his seat. The 
chairman had the courtesy to say, in a voice loud enough to be 
heard a great distance, " It is not, bishop, that they do not 
wish to hear you, but that they cannot hear you, that they are 
uneasy," 

He was of a rather irritable temperament, or, if not naturally 
so, his overwork and ill health had made him sensitive to inter- 
ruption, to blunders, and neglects by others. On one occasion, at 
the close of one of the longest sessions of an Annual Conference 
ever held, in which there had been much confusion and many 
things to try him, and in which he had shown that he was greatly 
tried, he said, just before reading the appointments, that "he had 
endeavored to transact the business thoroughly, and to possess his 
soul with patience, and if he had failed in any degree he begged 
the Conference to believe that nothing incompatible with Christian 
love was allowed to dwell in his heart ; but that a constitution now 
systematically overworked for a quarter of a century, gave him 
much to contend with." For many years he was a very sick man, 
yet he gave himself no rest, and it is wonderful that he controlled 
himself to the degree he did. To the sustaining grace of God 
he attributed it ; and that, no doubt, taken in connection with his 
exceeding conscientiousness and native good sense, and his high 
regard for propriety, is its explanation. 

Bishop Janes was a grave man, but he was ordinarily a cheerful 



322 Methodist Bishops. 

man, and by no means destitute of a sense of hnmor. The writer 
once heard him say to a class of candidates for admission into full 
connection with the Conference : " Brethren, if people sleep under 
your preaching it is your fault. Interest them and they will keep 
awake." But one of his colleagues, infirm and just returned from a 
long journey, was at that moment in the pulpit behind him, asleep. 
In the '^ cabinet " that afternoon he was told of the coincidence. 
He enjoyed it very much, and one of the presiding elders said that 
many times afterward he would smile and say, " Well, the bishop 
was asleep, was he? The young men must have thought that 
my doctrine was not sound, or that I gave them a precept without 
practice." 

The influence of Bishop Janes on the whole Church was deeply 
religious. He had a profound sense of the reality of revealed religion, 
and he impressed it upon all Avhom he met. He exerted a special influ- 
ence on the ministry. He was never light, never extravagant ; there 
was nothing of the "pulpit jester" in him. His piety was never 
questioned, and he was never accused of worldliness. Every-where 
he went he promoted the real interests of the Church. He had both 
knowledge and grace. His goodness elevated his intellect, and his 
intellectual qualities gave a peculiar luster to his unaffected piety. 

Considering the agitated condition of the Church when he was 
elected one of its " sii23erintendents," and its immediate disruption, 
and the " troublous times " that followed, we may thankfully adore 
the wisdom of God in his selection. 

His domestic life was unusually happy, though his work as bishop 
for many years greatly interfered with his enjoyment of home. He 
married Miss Charlotte Thibou, a lady of refinement and piety, in 
every way adapted to promote his happiness and usefulness. Their 
children were four in number, three daughters, of whom one, Matilda, 
died in tlie peace of God at the age of sixteen ; another, Charlotte, is 
the wife of the Kev. Charles E. Harris, of the E"ew York East Con- 
ference; and the third. Miss Sarah E. Janes, remained with her 
parents until they died ; and one son, the Bev. Lewis T. Janes, now 
preaching in the West. 

The family lived simply, in comfort, but without display. The 
richest and the poorest of his guests could sit in his parlor or at his 



Edmund Stoker Janes. 323 

table without the former seeing any thing to criticise as defective, or 
the hitter led to suspect the host of extravagance or worldly-minded- 
ness. In this respect his example might with pro23riety be followed 
not only by all ministers, but by all the members of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church wliose means would allow the moderate expendi- 
tures which he made. His financial affairs toward the end of his 
life were affected by the generally dej)ressed condition of the country, 
and he died before the return of prosperity. 

Mrs. Janes, after a most painful sickness of eleven months, died 
on the 18th of August, 18Y6. This event made a profound impres- 
sion on the already greatly weakened constitution of Bishop Janes, 
and " about a month after, returning from the Book Boom to his 
house, he was seized with his last illness." The writer was among 
those who reverently gazed upon him as he lay in his usual attire, 
slowly and painlessly dying. 'No change had taken place in his ap- 
pearance, and it seemed as if he must open his eyes, and ask his usual 
questions : " How are you, my brother, and how is your miinistry 
prospering ? " But he never spoke again. 

It is almost superfluous to ask how such a man died. There was 
but one way for him to die. Having lived the life of the righteous, 
his "last end was like his." For Mm to express himself satisfied, 
or to say, as he is reported to have said, ''I am not disappointed," 
is superior to all the flights of fancy which have made some death- 
beds celebrated, and furnished materials for glowing description in 
speech and song. 

It is, indeed, a pleasant thing to hear from the lips of a dying 
friend words of triumph and encouragement, to be relieved from the 
necessity of trying to strengthen the timid, and to find our own grief 
diminished by the vivid delineations which the departing give of the 
visions which open before them. How fondly we recall their " last 
words ! " But it is far better to have a whole life of piety to remem- 
ber than to be dependent on death-bed conversations for evidence 
either that our friends love us or that they love our Lord and Saviour. 
Bishop Janes had expressed his views of death and of the future state 
on many occasions, to the great comfort of those who had been 
bereaved, and his piety visibly deepened as his years declined toward 
the tomb, so that with much less exaggeration than is often seen, it 



824 Methodist Bishops. 

may be said that his Hfe and death furnish an illustration of God's 
word, '^ Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright : for the end of 
that man is peace." 

And the Methodist Episcopal Church will long cherish his 
memory. 

"As, in the heavens, the urns divine 

Of golden light forever shine ; 

Though clouds may darken, storms may rage, 

They still shine on from age to age ; 

"So, through the ocean-tide of years, 
The memory of the just appears : 
So, through the tempest and the gloom, 
The good man's virtues light the tomb." 



«»il«' 







ONE OF THE EISKOPS OP THE LEE THOBIST EPISCOPAL CHUB.CH. 



OsMON Cleander Baker. 



BY KEV. L. D. BARKOWS, D.D. 



A MODERN" critic lias said : " He wlio leaves a useful idea to 
posterity leaves a legacy." But the richest bequest ever left 
by man to liis survivors is a strong and spotless character. As the 
present is born of the past, it may be safely said that our chief 
inheritance of good and evil has come to us, under God's arrange- 
ment, from our predecessors. 

It is the chief purpose of biography to encourage this transfer 
from age to age of all that should repeat itself in society, and to stop, 
as far as possible, all currents that corrupt the popular mind and 
morals. Such is the mission of the modern press ; and if true to its 
high and holy calling, what speedy and powerful revolutions would 
be wrought in commerce, politics, and literature ! 

All who, like the writer, would contribute their item to such an 
object, find their work beset with neither few nor small difficulties. 
To read and delineate character correctly is as difficult as it is re- 
sponsible. Perversion, through ignorance or prejudice, seems almost 
inevitable. A sound judgment, a critical taste, and unyielding integ 
rity, alone can be trusted. A translator is expected to reproduce 
his original with no dazzling ornaments added. It is the pride of 
many scholars that they have completed their knowledge of the Iliad 
by translating it. 

It were no small nor unworthy aspiration to imbibe the spirit 
and character of a Homer; but if the present writer and reader 
may hope to approach the noble character of the subject of this 
fragmentary biography, it would be " a consummation most devoutly 
to be wished." 

When I was a boy, perhaps in 1833, I heard my father ask our 
circuit minister: "Have you in your Church any young man com- 
ing on who will fill the place of Dr. Fisk when he is gone ? " " Yes, 
sir," was the prompt reply, '' we have a young man in college now, 



328 Methodist Bishops. 

Osmon Oleander Baker, wlio bids fair (if lie takes a good course) 
to become his equal.'' From tliat day om- youthful curiosity fol- 
lowed the subject of this writing. 

Osmon Oleander Baker was born in Marlow, IS'. II., July 30, 
1812, and was the son of Dr. Isaac and Abigail Baker, who were 
persons of piety and more than ordinary culture. Without great afflu- 
ence, competency, comfort, and qniet refinement gave character to 
the happy household. Osmon was the youngest of three sons, with 
two sisters, also older. 

His Boyhood and Youth 

Exhibited nothing remarkable except the qniet refinement and mod- 
est bearing that he showed all throngh his ripe manhood. Rev. 
Eleazer Smith, of the oSTew Hampshire Oonference, a life-long com- 
panion, speaks of him at fonr years of age as a beautiful boy, 
bashfnl, modest, and manly, of an excellent disposition, and disin- 
clined to great activity in either work or play. 

Beyond the common school advantages Osmon, while young, at- 
tended more or less on the Chesterfield Academy. His parents be- 
came Christians in 1826, and became acquainted with Bev. Dr. Fisk 
only a short time before he took charge of the Wilbraham Academy. 
In Dr. Fisk's association with Dr. Baker's family young Osmon 
attracted his attention. And when the doctor went into Wilbraham 
Academy he took with him his promising young friend. Dr. Fisk 
and other efficient fathers in our Church looked after the coming man. 

Here, in 1S2S, being about sixteen years of age, yet unconverted, 
he was duly enrolled a student at Wilbraham. In the boarding-house 
there, March 14, 1828, he records his happy conversion to Christ, and 
was baptized by Dr. Fisk on April 13th, and joined the Methodist 
Episcopal Church on probation the next day. The day after his 
reception into the Church, two days after his baptism, he speaks of 
receiving "a great blessing at Stony Hill." 

After his conversion he commenced a diary, which is very regular 
and full. Notwithstanding the narrow limit of this article, we shall 
quote sufficiently to show the mind, character, and habits of the man, 
and how they were formed. From the first to the last stroke of his 
pen, the ruling feeling shown is a longing desire for more grace, and 



OsMAN Oleander Baker. 329 

a deejper religious experience. He seemed to compreliend at once the 
most exalted view of Christian growth and maturity. Scarcely a 
date or record that does not breathe this strong desire, and restless- 
ness with all that he saw before him as his duty and privilege. 
Bnt he was singularly free from all cant, or technicalities about the 
degrees of his religious attainments. Yet his standard was high and 
pre-eminently scri]3tural. 

He followed his studies in the academy for some time before 
any indications occur in his- diary of any plan for future work. 
This is first showm by his frequent allusions, though incidental and 
very brief, to " the theological class ^^ in such expressions as these : 
" The theological class met to-night at Dr. Fish's ; " " Felt the press- 
ure of God at the theological class this evening ; " " A. B. joined 
the theological class this evening," etc., etc. Yery little he says 
about the purposes or exercises of this class while he remained at 
Wibraham. The most that can be gathered from his unsatisfactory 
allusions to it is, that nothing but the most primary and general 
exercises were had. No recitations are spoken of; but doctrinal 
discussions, and plans of sermons, or an essay for the "]^ew England 
Herald," are spoken of in the class. It evidently met only weekly, 
and in the evening. 

Quite early in his Christian experience he shows a careful inquiry 
into the doctrines of Scripture. To this field of thought the noble 
Fisk turned the attention of his Christian young men. As early as 
May 26, 1829, it is recorded in his diary : " Conversed to-day with 
my roommate upon unconditional election. To my mind there is 
nothing in the Scriptures or in reason to support his views." At 
another time he says : " Brother Flamilton conversed with my chum 
on doctrine. O that he might be dug from the mire of Calvinism ! 
The more I examine that system the more I see its deformity and 
inconsistency." He speaks afterward of w^riting on that doctrine, by 
appointment of the class, for the " New^ England Herald." 

Much of the larger portion of his joiirnal relates to personal and 
experimental religion. He seems almost afraid to allude to any thing 
else, and feels so rebuked when he does, that he drops it in the 
shortest way he can. He frequently refers to the hinderances to his 
own growth in piety. He says : " Some of the young converts are 



330 Methodist Bishops. 

very mucli cast down; thej are so mucli addicted to laughter and 
lightness of mind." To this subject he often recurs. He laments 
almost continually his own free disposition to laughter ; and often 
attributes his lack of spirituality and comfort to this cause. Loud 
laughter he thought w^as wicked. Judged by the present common 
standard of Christian judgment, even, his conscience on this point 
was morbid. For smiling, even, he condemned himself. Many times 
he refers to it in his diary, in one year. Then and there, we judge, 
he trained himself to his future habit of lauo-hino: without noise. His 
nature was cheerful and kind. Keen and chaste wit he greatly en- 
joyed, and even repartee ; but he seldom perpetrated a joke or 
encouraged mirthfulness. Our acquaintance with his ripe manhood, 
has not suggested to us, as his journal has, that his great reserve and 
quietness were so largely the result of his early, continued, and 
severe discipline. Yet in after years he grew more liberal with 
himself on this subject, and no doubt smiled at his early asceticism. 
To be sober was cardinal in his practical theology; and if others 
tempted him to smile, he would go away to long agonies of prayer. 
But he gives us no clue to the origin of this singular conviction of 
his. 

He records, July 30, 1829 : " This day, I am seventeen years old." 
Up to this time he has spoken often of " the theological class," doctrinal 
discussions, sketch writing, talking in social meetings in the seminary, 
and neighborhood ; but no word has been dropped about the ininistry.^ 
exce]3t this brief minute, June 21, 1829 : '^ I have been in some 
agitation this afternoon and evening about preaching and exhorting. 
I wish to know and do my duty. I do not wish to be set about the 
work by the devil, who, doubtless, influences many to take the work 
of the ministry upon them when they are not called of God. O 
that God would direct me aright in all things ! " 

In August, 1829, he shows great anxiety and trouble of mind 
about j)reaching and going to college. Went into the pulpit for the 
first time, September 6, 1829, in his native town, with Brothers Fay 
and Tenny. He says he " w^ent with trembling steps ; but had con- 
siderable liberty in exhorting and praying." September 16 he 
started again for Wilbraham, with this remark : " Some think I had 
"better enter the old Methodist College (the itinerant ministry) and 



OsMON Oleander Baker. 331 

complete mv education there." Five days later, he adds : '' Com- 
menced to-daj my studies in the languages." But all this time he 
is filled with great hungerings for more grace and deeper piety. 

December 13, 1829 : " This morning went with Brother Jason 
Lee to Springfield Plains, and spoke to the people from Lamentations 
iii, 27, ' It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.' I 
was quite well prepared for speaking, and enjoyed considerable liberty. 
Spoke about three-quarters of an hour. Before I went I was full of 
fear and doubt; but after I had spoken my heart enjoyed a calm 
peace. This is the first time I ever attempted to speak from a text. 
I have many temptations about preaching; but I am determined to 
serve the Lord, even if I have to preach the gospel." 

December 25, 1829, we find this minute : " Theological class met 
this evening. Dr. Fisk asked the minds of the brethren about grant- 
ing Brothers Patten, Hill, and myself, exhorter's license, though we 
had not applied. We were recommended." 

In a crisis hour of his life, December 29, 1829, he writes thus : 
" This evening prayed in the family, but did not have quite my usual 
liberty, and this laid the foundation for many trials. It has been 
a day of trials and afilictions in meditating upon preaching. This 
evening I walked out, and reflecting upon this subject as I traversed 
the lonely fields, my reasonings were as follow^s : I have not the gifts 
of expression which some have, and I think that this is my greatest 
obstruction. But yet, I say, if it is the will of God that I should 
preach I will do so. Bat then the conclusion seems to be this : if my 
utterance w^as perfect, then I should not consider my present con- 
victions as sufiicient evidence of my call. And, again, if I was 
in reality called of God to preach the gospel, I should have clearer 
evidence of it than I now have ; therefore, the difiiculty of com- 
munication should not be a hinderance. Again, if all things were 
perfect, then there would be no growth in abilities. These things 
troubled my mind to such an extent that it was with much 
difficulty that I could study. I have conversed considerably upon 
this subject with Brothers Patten and Hill. I have been tempted to 
give up my religion, or to go to 'New Hampshire. But yet I am 
resolved to serve the Lord. I am sensible it has hurt my enjoyment, 
and that I do not stand as high in Christian experience as I have 
20 



332 Methodist Bishops. 

done. This evening Dr. Fisk preached in the hall concerning the 
witness of the Spirit. After meeting, mj chum and myself got into 
the spirit of langhter. O that I might have control over myself 
through grace ! " 

January 1, 1830, his journal states : " This evening the theological 
class met in jSTo. 3. After prayer, Brothers Patten, Hill, and myself, 
received license to hold prayer and exhortation meetings in the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, signed by David Kilburn, presiding elder, in 
behalf of the Quarterly Conference of Wilbraham Circuit." Before 
this, however, he had prepared and delivered many discourses which 
he deemed unworthy to be called sermons. 

Just at this point a little of his exj)erience will be read with in- 
terest and profit : " This afternoon I have been writing on Solomon's 
Song, ii, 16. It is my practice to write my discourses before I deliver 
them. Neither nature nor grace have given me the happy art of 
doing things as sorrfe can, without deep thought and research, and this 
I can do best on paper. ... If a person who is called of God does 
not liave his mind dwell on the subject before he speaks, then I am 
not called." Yery much like this not a few young men have been 
heard to talk, since the commencement of young Baker to preach. To 
any soul who may read this we commend a subsequent fragment of his 
experience. 

Sabbath, January 31, 1829, he had, with a brother, an appointment 
to preach in an adjoining town. But he says : " My colleague, Brother 
Lee, had gone to B. to hold a meeting, and the whole appointment lay 
upon my own shoulders. Some of my brethren (especially Brother P.) 
had led me to suppose that they would bear half the burden. Yet this 
morning it so happened that it was not thought desirable for P. to go 
with me. Brother W. also declined on account of some things which 
he thought an ample excuse. Brother H. (my chum) declined for want 
of a disposition. Thus was I brought into the strait. I argued the 
case very zealously, as I had prepared but .one discourse, and as I had 
written all my discourses previously. My courage failed not ; and I 
was determined to go and do the best I could, and trust in the Lord. 
As I had a few skeletons written, I took one of them, on 2 Peter 
iii, 18, and started for my appointment. I prepared and arranged my 
first discourse, on Peter, while I was travehng, in the best manner I 



OsMON Oleander Baker. 333 

could in my present circumstances. The meeting commenced, and I 
had good liberty. From these mercies of God I learn to trust in 
him in all things, knowing that God will stand by his word, and that 
I should be more fully engaged in his service." 

At this point of his diary is a note of reference to a comment of 
his on this matter nine years later, in these words : " In the morning 
[in the unwritten discourse] I felt more liberty in declaring the truth 
than I did in the afternoon. Thus my confidence in myself was 
increased ; and from that day to the present my public exercises have 
been extemporaneous." Let timid young men who lack faith in 
themselves and in God go and do likewise ; but, " prepare and 
arrange," as he did, without dependence on paper. 

His hard struggle with temptation, and his deep experience, are 
well set forth m the following : " This morning, before meeting, I 
was disconsolate — felt I was cast off by my brethren. In meeting 
held a long conversation with the adversary, and felt no good result- 
ing from it. It appeared some of the time that the jaws of hell were 
clinched around me. And, by tracing back effects to causes, I find 
why it is so. The fault is wholly in me. It flows from pride and 
unwillingness to do duty, running round the cross, and a distrust of 
God. These things ought not so to be. It appears that I cannot, 
neither would it be best for me, to do any thing in our public meet- 
ings, unless God has sanctified my soul wholly. I look around, and 
there are not many who profess this blessing. If they live the 
blessing of justification without striving for full salvation, I am sensi- 
ble that I cannot. I have written for that blessing ; I have exhorted 
publicly ; I have contended in private conversation for it ; I have in 
some degree lived for it ; but, alas, I have not 'believed for full and 
perfect salvation. ... I cannot live without a sanctified heart. The 
devil attacks me on every hand — preaching, sanctification, etc., etc. 
But, after all, I rest in hope." Thus the convert and feeble Christian 
can see how the great and good of other times have struggled with 
Satan, and with the same doubts and fears they now suffer. 

At another time he speaks of a terrible temptation about " a re- 
vised Epicurean system," — the origin of the material world — the 
pleasures and the troubles of the imagination ; but in every successive 
assault, with the simplicity of a child, he sought refuge only in prayer 



334 Methodist Bishops. 

and lioly trust. His childliood education had most thoroughly taught 
him the subordination of all things to the Supreme Ruler of the 
universe, from which no storms of Satanic rage could shake him. 

The sj)irit of his school-boy days, and the cast of his mind, are well 
indica^ted in the following extract from his journal, March 18, 1829 : 
" This evening there was a prayer-meeting held in the dining hall. 
During prayer time divine worship was seriously disturbed by the 
irreverent responses of one of the students. After rising from our 
knees Brother L. turned to him and addressed him in the following 
words : ' Thou child of the devil ; thou limb of Satan ; thou firebrand 
of hell ; thinkest thou that we cannot discern between the voice of 
the sheep and of the goats ? ' The propriety of using such language 
in a religious meeting I very much question. Yet, perhaps, I may 
gain some wisdom by noting the effects which this produced." Here 
is seen the gentle, cautious, but analectic cast of his mind. 

He took mucli interest, and spent much time, both while at "Wil- 
braham and at Middletown, in holding social meetings, and in visiting 
and preaching in adjoining towns and neighborhoods : so much so 
that Dr. Fisk remarked that it somewhat retarded his studies. Yet 
he expressed no wish to have him do less of that work. The doctor 
understood and believed m practical education. 

We have now sufficiently opened to the reader's mind, especially 
to the young minister, the history and character of young Baker's 
early years ; before his great life work was either commenced or fully 
determined upon. His was a boyhood that all young persons, par- 
ticularly young men, can safely and profitably study. 

After this date he records great struggles and great doubts about 
his duty. He especially felt himself, at times, called to preach ; but 
his health and voice were weak and his lungs not strong. Then, too, 
with many kind and appreciative words from friends about his early 
efforts at preaching, he had received, as it was best he should, some 
pointed criticisms, which had the effect to shake his confidence in his 
call. One decided criticism which he had heard of, came from a 
brother who, to his face, had complimented his sermons. This greatly 
shocked his pure and unsophisticated mind. 

About going to college, also, he was in doubt. " My feelings," he 
says, June 21, 1830, "have been quite averse to entering college. 1 



OsMON Oleander Baker. 335 

am afraid if I enter I shall lose my religion, and consequently, my 
soul. The Lord direct ! . . . When I look toward the college it 
appears to me that I could not live so holy, as I might in traveling a 
circuit. I never saw a person who, in time of college studies, w^as 
shining in gos23el purity." July 12, 1830 : '^ Conversed with Dr. I^'isk 
upon my present and future course. It is his mind that I enter col- 
lege. ... I am doubtful concerning duty about college. It appears 
to me that should I commence traveling at present, I should j^reach 
all I know in once going around the circuit ; so that a famine of the 
bread of life would so evidently ensue, that it might in truth be said, 
Ovrog LEpevg ovrog Xaog. Later he says, " I am at a great loss to know 
what course to pursue in reference to my future life. I have a thou- 
sand plans suggested to my mind, but none of them perfectly suit me. 
I have about entirely given up the idea of ever entering the ministry. 
My constitution is w^eak, and particularly my lungs. When I enjoy 
tolerable health my lungs do not trouble me in ordinary business, but 
when I attempt to preach they fail me." Soon after this he adds : 
" I have been considering the propriety of commencing the study of 
medicine. I desire the sanction of Heaven upon my course. Life is 
so short and important, that I wish to have it well improved. May 
Wisdom divine guide me aright in all things ! " He did commence 
the study of anatomy, not knowing, he said, whether he should ever 
use it ; and three years after he entered college he was not fully 
settled about his calling in lite. Query : Was this setting back of his 
religious life in college — this doubt and hesitation for three years of 
college life — the result of what he feared three years before, if he 
went to college ? We have looked carefully to find in his journal 
while in college some expression of happy disappointment of his fears 
as to its religious influences, but have looked in vain. Therefore we 
are left, from his experience on this subject, to the conclusion that 
more than forty years since, as we judge it is now, the religious influ- 
ence of our seminaries was much greater than that of the college. 
That there is the least necessity for this presumed state of things in 
college we have no idea. Why, then, is it allowed to exist, if it does 
exist ? and if it does not, how comes it to be the impression and testi- 
mony of the students w^ho pass through both seminaries and colleges ? 
October 6, 1830, he makes this record : " Started in the stage this 



336 Methodist Bishops. 

morning at half past six o'clock, with Brother Patten, for Middletown, 
Connecticut, by the request of mj parents and friends and the candid 
advice of the preachers and brethren, and the corresponding feelings 
of my own heart. I have started for the college grove." 

But his jom-nal does not seem so full during his college course as 
while he was in the seminary. He treats mostly of his religious expe- 
riences, and touches lightly and seldom his studies or other outside 
matters. 

In his sophomore year he was appointed class-leader in college, and 
seems to have been faithful and useful therein, continually expressing 
desires for a full salvation, as had been the case with him from the 
day of his conversion. 

In March, 1831, he speaks of a great baptism of the Spirit on him- 
self and others in a prayer-meeting. Some of them found themselves 
" prostrate on the floor." Toward the latter part of the course he 
writes : " I have been seeking sanctification ; and because I did not 
obtain it, felt sometimes discouraged, or permitted a stupid frame of 
mind to take possession of me. I have been striving to pray for grace 
to hve now. Sanctification will not give us a stock of grace which 
will be inexhaustible, and always support us : it will only enable us to 
give the whole soul to God continually, and live in the flames of love." 

Osmon exhibited from his earliest experience remarkably clear and 
correct views of Scripture doctrines and Christian morahty. His con- 
science was well informed, and very authoritative. He observed a 
weekly fast, living by simple, strict, and uniform rules. When 
Paley's "Evidences," as a text-book, was introduced as a Monday 
morning recitation, with either the requirement or the habit of pre- 
paring the lesson on the Sabbath, he left this wholesome minute on 
the subject : " I think I shall not study in this manner any more on 
the Sabbath. I would rather leave college than be bound to prepare 
any collegiate study on the Sabbath." And during our acquaintance 
with him, of more than thirty-five years, we never saw his conscience 
toned lower than this on any point of Christian morality. 

]S"othing more need be said to indicate the elements and formation 
of Bishop Baker's character. His later modes or habits of life, and 
the noble work he did for Christ and the Church, only remain to be 
considered. 



OsMON Oleander Baker. 337 

His Mature Life and Character. 

He left college on account of illness a little before he had com- 
pleted his course of study, but finished it afterward, and took the 
second degree witli his class. 

Soon after this he married Miss Mehitabel Perley, of Lempster, 
ISr. H., who was of excellent parentage, culture, and consistent piety. 
They mutually understood and appreciated each other. The happi- 
ness of their domestic life was unclouded, save by the shadows that 
death threw over them in the removal of three beautiful and promis- 
ing children. 

Bishop Baker appreciated and loved his friends, taking great pleas- 
ure in their company, and in entertaining them. In idle gossip he had 
no interest; but all educational, religious, and ecclesiastical subjects 
shared his close attention, and drew out all the life, sympathy, and 
energy of his great soul. That portion of society interested in such 
subjects was drawn toward him, and not to be disappointed. His bus- 
iness or financial ability, also, was known and appreciated by his best 
acquaintances ; and in the city of his longest residence. Concord, he 
held office in one or more cff the banks. His counsels were widely 
sought in financial matters by his numerous acquaintances, as well as 
by the clergymen and societies around him. And it is quite safe to 
say, that seldom, if ever, was a Church or a friend injuriously involved 
in business matters who strictly followed his advice. 

The most striking peculiarities of his mind were clearness, precis- 
ion, and quickness. In clothing his thoughts with language he was 
not as ready and rapid as many, but singularly accurate. He seldom 
changed a word or mended an expression. Thoughts were conceived 
more rapidly than they were uttered. The whole situation he com- 
prehended at a glance ; but spoke with deliberation. The result was, 
few mistakes or occasions to " mend his translation." 

His feelings, as his thoughts, were quick and sensitive. His love 
and sympathy, his sorrow and disappointment, were as quickly appar- 
ent as his far-reaching perception. If he ever exhibited anger we 
never saw or heard of it. Sudden and unexpected opposition he 
seemed powerless to resist; but with the artlessness of a child he 
looked around for some one to assist him. Once, in his strong man- 
hood, we saw him by a sudden and unprovoked assault completely 



338 Methodist Bishops. 

thrown. It was on the floor of his own Conference. The assault was 
uncalled for, and bj a life-long friend ; but sudden and rough. He was 
struck dumb. His perfect rectitude was apparent at once to all ; but 
the surprise unfitted him to state clearly his own case. The shock was 
too much for his exquisite ner\^ous system. We never, before or after, 
saw him under a guerrilla fire. That was not his mode of warfare. 

The highest order of thought and the most perfect refinement of 
feelino^ constituted his realm of action. He was at his ease nowhere else. 

"When the Kewbury Seminary was opened, in 1834, the year after 
he left college, he was elected professor ; Rev. Charles Adams, princi- 
pal. In this capacity he served the Church in faithful and modest 
toil for five years, when, on the resignation of Principal Adams, he 
was elected to fill that position, with Eev. C. T. Hinman as his first 
professor. Five years he remained principal of the institution. As a 
teacher he was most remarkable for his clearness, conciseness, and 
lively interest. He read his pupils at once through and through, and, 
without comment on them, he set himself to develop them as best he 
could. And with what success hundreds have pleasant recollections. 

These ten years of continuous instruction imparted to his pulpit 
style in after life something of the easy, cool, and precise manner of 
the professor's chair, as distinguished from a declamatory style. As a 
disciplinarian he was of few words, mild, firm, and uniform. His 
pupils all loved him, for, on thorough acquaintance, they never failed 
to discover, beneath his peculiar reticence, the uniform and tender 
sympathy of an unselfish soul. Those who saw but little of him, and 
that at a distance, knew him not at all. He had not the faculty of 
easily and readily forming acquaintances. The seminary was pros- 
perous under his care, and the board of trustees, as well as the pupils, 
greatly lamented his resignation. 

But the ministry was the great object of his desire, as well as of 
his admiration. Being already a member of the 'New Hampshire 
Conference, he asked, in 1844, for a pastoral appointment. After 
having been stationed at Rochester and Elm-street, Manchester, he 
was, by the unanimous and urgent request of the preachers, appointed 
presiding elder on the Dover district. Greatly beloved by his preach- 
ers and official members, we are of opinion that this was one of the 
happiest years of his life. 



OsMON Oleander Baker. 339 

Before his first year on tlie district expired he was elected professor 
in the General Biblical Institute, which had just been removed from 
Newbury, Yt., and located, as a separate and independent institution, 
at Concord, I^. II. He was doubtful about accepting. He was happy 
on his district, and his preachers clung to him. But then, on the 
other hand, he had been an early and chief mover in originating a 
Methodist theological school, now, for the first, taking form. He was 
urged to accept, and did so, with Kev. John Dempster, D.D., and 
Rev. Charles Adams as his associate professors, followed by He v. 
S. M. Yail, D.D., Eev. David Patten, D.D., and Rev. J. W. Merrill, 
D.D. It was said in the board of trustees that elected the first faculty 
at Concord, " Professor Baker has done more to organize and give 
shape to this new institution than any other man; and he is now 
looked to as one of the chief men to fashion its future." 

Plere he became more widely known and appreciated. 'No student 
in that school ever left without carrying with him for life more or less 
of Professor Baker's impressions. A more detailed account of how he 
made that strong impression on the pupils, we think, would be of 
much service to our present and future theological professors, as 
his methods were largely different from others with which we are ac- 
quainted. Our limits forbid any thing but a word or two in that direc- 
tion. Aside from his regular recitations, he spent much time with his 
pupils in hearing and criticising plans of sermons, their arrangement, 
doctrines, delivery, language, grammar, rhetoric, and elocution. This, 
too, he long practiced in the Conference Seminar^^ at Newbury, and is 
what should to-day be practiced in all our Conference seminaries. In 
these exercises he breathed hope and courage into the timid, took the 
conceit out of the vain, rounded off the rough corners of the unpolished, 
and tore out by the root those unconscious bad habits of the other- 
wise promising ones, which hindered their rising to a higher plane of 
popular usefulness. These criticisms were always in the most gentle 
spirit, and in respectful language, but with the most unbending fidelity. 
Surprise and grief sometimes followed, but tears of joy and gratitude 
were the final results. The pupils were allowed to see their good and 
strong points, as w^ell as made to feel their bad and weak ones. 

In the institute he prepared and delivered to each class an exten- 
sive course of lectures on '' Clerical Manners and Habits." These 



340 Methodist Bishops. 

should have been published long since. They are exhaustive and 
invaluable, not for young ministers only, but for all young persons. 
lie says, in his introduction to them : " I shall descend to the minutest 
particulars, and shall comment on the several topics with plainess and 
severity." The following are some of the topics of the lectures : 
" Clerical Manners and Habits : — ^In tlie pulpit — Gesture — Yoice — 
In the family — Yisiting with his family — The pastor's horse — The 
pastor in the street — The pastor receiving presents — Conversation — 
Political— At the table — In the parlor — Pastoral visitation — Manner 
of introducing religion — The infidel — The backslider— Yisiting the 
rich — Yisiting the poor — Yisiting the sick — Yisiting enemies — Yisit- 
ing other denominations — Conversing with strangers," etc., etc. One 
of these lectures, on " Conversation," has forty-three points or sugges- 
tions. They are all replete with incident and illustration. Our young 
clerical readers with good habits of composition w^ill receive some 
idea of this course of lectures, \>j filling ujp in their imaginations the 
following outline of the first lecture on the topic : '' The Minister in 
the Pulpit. !Never hurry or bustle along the aisles to the pulpit as 

if on a wager. Pev. fell, running up the pulpit steps, l^ever 

survey the congregation as you ascend the pulpit stairs, l^ever sit 
carelessly in the pulpit. Do not squint about, as if counting the con- 
gregation. Pev. turns his whole body as if to see who is behind 

a pillar or stove-pipe. Do not spring or leap up in the pulpit, but rise 
slowly and solemnly. Assume no airs. Avoid all singular movements. 

Pev. was supposed to have the St. Yitus' dance. Do not flourish 

or play with pocket-handkerchief, or thrust it into improper places. 
Avoid all unnecessary movements in the pulpit. Make no unnecessary 

noise, hemming or coughing. Pev. used to hem at the close of 

every sentence," etc., etc. 

During the five years he spent in the Biblical Institute he per- 
formed a vast amount of literary labor, of which his most intimate 
friends had no knowledge until after his death. Looking over his 
manuscripts, which he left unpublished, we find among the many : 
" The Life of Augustine," " The Birth and Childhood of our Lord," 
" Exegesis of the Acts of the Apostles," " Exegesis of the Epistles," 
with many and able dedication and ordination sermons, missionary 
addresses, etc. 



OsMON Oleander Baker. 341 

During liis visit to Kansas, California, and Oregon, early in his epis- 
copal duties, lie wrote and published a series of full and able letters 
descriptive of those portions of the country, and especially of our do- 
mestic and Indian missions. When he had the episcopal supervision of 
our China and Indian missions he published in " Zion's Herald " very 
extensive and minute accounts of those missions. These letters w^ill 
be valuable some time in making up the history of our vast missionary 
work. 

It is proper to notice how this quiet and undemonstrative man was 
so suddenly, and to many unexpectedly, raised to the highest position 
of honor and trust in the Church. 

It was not until 1848, when he was first elected a delegate to the 
General Conference, held in Pittsburgh, that he began to be known 
beyond the bounds of his own Conference. ]N'or did he then, or sub- 
sequently, make any marked impression abroad, as he had a constitu- 
tional aversion to all public demonstrations. His influence was at once 
felt, however, on several important committees. Still it was essentially 
true, that his name and influence went abroad from l^ew England 
through his friends at home.. He never, up to this time, made for 
himself any special reputation abroad, as he traveled but little, and 
had written comparatively nothing for the press. 

It was his strong and growing home reputation that first suggested 
his name as a suitable, and then as a probable, candidate for the epis- 
copacy. Hence it was not strange that when, prior to the General 
Conference of 1852, his name was used in connection with the ofiice, 
and it became known that the first choice of ISTew England for bishop 
would probably be Professor O. C. Baker, the inquiry at once arose, 
" Who is this Professor Baker, of ]^ew Hampshire ? " Most of his 
writings for the press up to that time had been to aid in the establish- 
ment of a theological school, and in that he had been mostly personally 
unknown. 

At the General Conference of 1852, held in Boston, he was elected 
bishop on the same ballot with Dr. Scott, Dr. Simpson, and Dr. Ames. 
And though he knew his name had been mentioned in that connection, 
and that some of his ISTew England friends would probably vote for 
him, yet his election was evidently a surprise to him. After his elec- 
tion, and before his ordination, he sought a private interview with the 



342 Methodist Bishops. 

writer, during a long and lonely walk, to ask advice whether or not 
he should accept the office. His own mind was evidently undeter- 
mined as to his duty. He exhibited the deepest and most prayerful 
solicitude. 

The editor of " Zion's Herald," Dr. A. Stevens, on the occasion of 
his election, says of him : " Like Dr. "Ames, he is round and blooming 
with health. His features present a very interesting expression. There 
is a manifest modesty about them. You would take him to be incapa- 
ble of any discourtesy, however slight or sudden, of any egotism or 
obtrusion. His head is large and intellectual ; his eyes of hazel color, 
and protected by spectacles ; his nose is prominent, and his month 
large and expressive of generosity. His brethren have shown their 
confidence in him by two elections to the General Conference, and by 
electing him secretary of his own Conference for quite a number of 
years. An occasional sermon, and a Sabbath-school gift-book, ' The 
Last AYitness,' are all the books he has published. He has a volume 
in manuscript to which we have occasionally alluded. It is entitled, 
' The Methodist Preacher's Hand-Book.' We hope it may be pub- 
lished before long. Bishop Baker is a thorough Greek scholar, a rare 
instructor, and noted among us for his familiar acquaintance with the 
Methodist economy. His place in onr biblical school cannot be easily 
filled. New England feels not only satisfied, but honored in his 
election." 

The spirit of the man as well as his delicate modesty are shown in 
the brief and unpretentious address he gave before the I^ew Hamp- 
shire Conference over which he first presided : — 

Dear Brethren — It is not expected, I presume, that I should make any ex- 
tended remarks to you on the opening of this session ; but as my name is about 
to be stricken from your roll, I cannot allow the erasure to be made without a 
passing remark. It is now about thirteen years that my name has been as- 
sociated with this body ; and with some of these venerable men it has been my 
happiness to hold intercourse for more than a score of years. It is not strange, 
therefore, that in severing those relations my heart should be deeply moved. 
The kindness and affection which my brethren have ever shown me, I cordially 
appreciate, and I take this opportunity to express to them my grateful acknowl- 
edgment. My connection with them has been every way most grateful to my 
feelings. There has been but one consideration which has marred my pleasure; 
in accepting those offices and laboring in those fields where my brethren have 



OsMON Oleander Baker. 343 

placed me, I have always felt that I did not bear my share of toil and suffering 
with them. 

In accepting my present office, I trust that no unwr)rthy motives influenced 
me. If there is honor connected with the office, I liave not sought it, and 
lightly esteem it. I have been happy in my work — in the ordinary duties of my 
calling as a Metiiodist preacher. I am happy in my domestic relations, but if I 
am called to toil, privations, and sufferings for Christ, why should I chum ex- 
emption? I have seen too much of the goodness of the Lord to withhold from 
his cause any service which I can render. I enter upon my work trusting in the 
arm of God, and relying upon the indulgence and aid of my brethren, and con- 
secrating to Christ all the powers of my being. 

We have assembled, my brethren, to consult >ipon tlie most important inter- 
est of the Church of Christ. Our action will have a most important bearing 
upon the interest of religion in this State during the coming year, and, perhaps, 
during the distant ages of futurity. I trust, therefore, that we have come 
together with prayerful hearts, looking to God for divine guidance. May the 
great Head of the Church shine upon all our counsels. Let us cherish the deep- 
est sentiments of affection for each otlier, and endeavor to promote, as far as 
we are able, the cause of Christ among us. 

For the episcopal office he seemed to combine almost every de- 
sirable quality. With a perfectly balanced judgment, great sympathy, 
a quick and tender conscience, delicacy and refinement of feeling, 
with ease and dignity in the chair, he was a superior presiding and 
cabinet officer. None were his superiors in parliamentary law and 
usage. Hence, without hurry or confusion, he was ready and rapid 
in dispatching business. 

Some unknown writer who was present at the first Conference 
over which he presided, speaks thus of him in " Zion's Herald : ^' He 
is so calm and dignified, so deliberate and judicious, that you would 
not think him new, were you unacquainted with the fact. Indeed, 
there is hardly friction enough about him to make you feel that he 
has not yet been used. You insensibly forget to extend that kind of 
sympathy which you suppose all beginners have a right to claim. 
As you sit in the Conference, remembering that he was not a bishop 
a month ago, you expect, and even desire, the novelty of an occasional 
blunder. ... You have now waited session after session for a single 
mistake that may comfort you, and all is still marked by consummate 
wisdom and prudence . . . and you exclaim, How perfectly adapted 



344: Methodist Bishops. 

to his offi(5e ! What a selection ! What an excellent man ! " Tho"uo:h 
this sounds almost like flattery, yet, no one who was present on that 
occasion will pronounce it over-wrought. 

In making the appointments of the pastors he was very conscien- 
tious and prayerful. While as tender and careful of the interests and 
feelings of all parties concerned as the circumstances would possibly 
allow, he regarded the great interests of Christ's Church as of the 
first importance and entitled to the flrst consideration. Still, it never 
came to our knowledge that in a single case he was ever accused of 
coldness or indifference toward the personal or family interests of the 
preachers. The resolutions of approval and admiration passed by the 
Conferences over which he presided would All many pages of this 
volume. So, too, the correspondents of the press were abundant 
in his praises, and almost invidious in their comparisons. 

Wherein was the great power and usefulness of the lamented 
Bishop Baker ? We cannot claim for him the pulpit eloquence and 
enthusiasm of some other deceased or living bishop. His strength 
was in another direction, just as positive and marked, when his life 
and character are correctly analyzed. 

We are impressed with his great usefulness during fifteen of his 
best years in one of our earliest and largest Conference Seminaries, 
and in the pioneer Theological School of our Church, together with 
his scholarly pulpit efforts almost continually from 1829 to 1866, 
when he was stricken down on the mountains of Colorado, ci'ushed 
with the unreasonable burden and exposure of his office. 

The great and lasting service he rendered the Church during his 
active and useful life cannot be further considered within the brief 
limits of this article. It remains for us, however, to notice two 
particulars in his life-work, in which the character and ability of the 
bishop were specially shown and powerfully felt. In a quiet and 
modest way he was the leading instrument of introducing and work- 
ing measures that have already resulted in an epoch in our Church 
history and usage. 

His " Guide-Book in the Administration of the Discipline " — the 
result of years of research — has wrought a sudden and almost entire 
change in the administration of discipline in our Church. Prior to 
this great work of the bishop several causes led to a very lax, diver- 



OsMON Oleander Baker. 345 

sified, and irregular administration of our Discipline. The book of 
Discipline itself is small aad condensed — midtum in jparvo — and with- 
out note or comment. It is of authority over this whole continent, > 
and in all our foreign missions on the Eastern Continent. Our 
ministry in the years gone by had not been generally trained in 
colleges or theological schbols ; therefore, any thing like a careful 
and exact administration could not be expected. The result was 
irregular and even ??2<2Z-administration, by which thousands of val- 
uable members were lost to the Church — nor are we yet exempt from 
this evil. But a marked change for the better has come over us. ]^o 
pastor now considers himself any more prepared for the administra- 
tion of our Church affairs without " Baker on the Discipline," than 
he considers himself prepared to preach without a Scripture com- 
mentary. Hence now, in most cases, our Church trials, appeals, and 
arbitrations, are conducted with about as much regularity and pre- 
cision as are the civil courts. Thanks to God and Bishop Baker for 
this new regime^ so invaluable to the Church. 

Providence as manifestly raised up that judicial mind to supply 
an urgent want in our Church of his day as he raised up a Fletcher and 
Fisk to check the Calvinism and Universalism of their day. Those 
of us who have long been pastors have a sad knowledge of the 
vast amount of disaster and loss to the Church through the ignorant, 
careless, weak, or selhsh work of lax administrators. But now what 
a remedy for this, and what a help to the young and anxious pastor, 
is found in this " Guide-Book ! " ITot even yet has the ministry fully 
realized its obligation. 

The second great providential work accomplished by him was his 
leading agency in introducing what, at that time, was the greatest of 
all human aids that the Methodist Episcopal Church required — some 
kind of a theological school. 

His true position in the history of this great movement, theolog- 
ical education, is not generally known. This we aver from our per- 
sonal knowledge, having been associated with him at the time. His 
great modesty concealed his name in much that he did to accomplish 
that object. Hence we will state briefly, but carefully, the historic 
facts justly attributable 'to his name in this matter. 

When Professor Baker took charge of the Newbury Seminary, as 



34:6 Methodist Bishops. 

far as we can learn there was not in existence in the Methodist Epis- 
copal Chnrch any theological school, nor even what could be properly 
called a theological class in any college or seminary of ours. Yet 
before this Dr. Fisk, at Wilbraham and Middletown, had a class, so- 
called, which met weekly, (for a time,) holding some sort of exercises 
appropriate for young men who were lookihg to the ministry, but with 
no regular studies or recitations. As we have already shown, young 
Baker was a member of this class. Our impression, however, is, that 
it was not long kept up, either at Wilbraham or Middletown, after 
Dr. Fisk's day. Some six or seven years after (in 1840 or 1841) Pro- 
fessor Baker left Middletown, he organized in the Newbury Seminary 
a class much after the style, we judge, of the one under Dr. Fisk at 
Wilbraham, only more extended and regular in its course of study. 
At first he probably contemplated nothing more than a class or depart- 
ment in that seminary. But the class and its importance grew on his 
hands and in his heart. At that time our Church was opposed — seri- 
ously and ludicrously opposed — to all theological schools. Still, the first 
result of the Newbury class, which became a daily class, was the forma- 
tion of a " Theological Society " at Newbury, of which Professor 
Baker was president, Kev. L. D. Barrows, (pastor,) was vice-president, 
and of which Kevs. O. Scott, Solomon Sias, B. R. Hoyt, E. Adams, 
Clark T. Hinman, and all traveling and local preachers in the school 
and town were members. It was largely in this " Society " there grew 
up the idea, first of a large department, and after considerable discus- 
sion and delay, also the idea of a separate and independent theological 
school named "Biblical Institute," as a compromise with the wide- 
spread and fearful prejudice against all theological schools. Professor 
William M. Willett, of New York, was called to the department, and 
labored four or five years efiiciently with Professor Baker to build it 
up ; and to him much credit is due. From this small beginning under 
Professor Baker and his helpers sprang all our theological schools. 
That little root has its three branches, Boston, Evanston, and Madison. 
The method of its growth was briefly this: This theological 
society at Newbury, under the leadership of Professor Baker and 
Professor Willett, acting at first with and through the trustees of the 
Newbury Seminary, proposed to all New England Methodism through 
its Annual Conferences to unite in a general, separate, and independ- 



OsMON Oleander Baker. 347 

ent school, to be located by a new board of trust appointed by the 
united and patronizing Conferences. At this point of its history Rev. 
John Dempster, D.D., was called into its service, who probably did 
more than any other man to remove the prejudices of the Church 
against the school, and by his clear logic and lofty eloquence to raise 
endowment funds. But the silent and working power, as well as 
shaping hand behind all this, was Professor Baker. His published 
articles — not over his own name — were clear and convincing in defense 
of the school. Many other men did much thus early to aid and pre- 
pare the way, which a full history should here name. The Confer- 
ences that entered into the arrangement (all the New England, Troy, 
and Black Biver Conferences) raised funds and appointed trustees, 
and located the school at Concord, where in 1847, it went into opera- 
tion. Thence it was subsequently removed to Boston. To this school 
at Concord Professor Baker gave his best and untiring energies until 
he was elected bishop, in 1852, nor do we think any of his worthy 
and efficient associate professors w^ill be grieved with our opinion that 
he, more than any other man, gave shape and tone to the school while 
in it. He was elected president of the school after he entered the 
episcopal office. 

Professor Willett, who taught Hebrew at Middletown with Dr. 
Fisk, while he had his theological class there, says : " Dr. Fisk felt the 
necessity of proceeding in his new undertaking with great caution, so 
as not unnecessarily to awaken prejudice against what he deemed an 
important step in the education of the ministry. ... In ISTewbury, 
Vermont, the case was different. They breathed a freer air, and soon 
the 'New Hampshire and Vermont Conferences united in a hearty sup- 
port of the new school. Bishop Baker was one of the warmest friends 
of the new enterprise ; and, as we have intimated, so far as his other 
duties would allow, cordially united in the effort to make the school 
what it became. Professor Hinman and Dr. Barrows (then stationed 
preachers at ISTewbury) were also strong and ardent friends of the 
school. This was, in fact, the origin of what are now called theolog- 
ical schools in the Methodist Episcopal Church, though the first germ 
was planted in the Wesleyan University." (Letter in " Zion's Herald," 
December 25, 1871.) 

Different opinions were held of Professor Baker as a preacher, 
21 



348 Methodist Bishops. 

All, however, Avere agreed that liis sermons were thoroughly prepared, 
clear, logical, and very instructive. Also, that his style was chaste, 
simple, and impressive, rather than boisterous or powerful. He ad- 
dressed himself directly lo the understanding and best moral feelings of 
the hearer. There was not with him the slightest approach to attempts 
at display, only so far as unadorned gospel truth would lead. With 
no aifectation, and little gesture, you saw evident sincerity and deep 
devotion to the truth he uttered. But his eloquence was far removed 
from the stump-orator kind. His voice was pleasant, but not strong, 
nor was it well trained. His elocution could not be called good. This 
he seemed never to have studied, which was about the only noticeable 
defect in his pulpit efforts. More of the imaginative and poetic, and 
less of the professor's style, would doubtless have made him more 
effective as a public speaker for the masses. His modesty was usually 
thought to be extreme ; and in some cases, no doubt, it diminished his 
influence, but in other cases it gave him increased power. 

In his own home the bishop was one of the happiest of men. 
Having a competency without affluence, with a w^ife every way worthy 
such a husband, showing herself neither above nor below her position, 
with two mature and cultivated daughters, the sun of domestic hap- 
piness was long unclouded in that liappy home. He always enjoyed 
the society of his friends, while his nature shrank from rough contact 
with his fellows. Bland, sensible, and brief as were his utterances, 
they were cheerful, but never trifling. Coarse a.nd flippant words in 
his presence were never invited, but received only the silent rebuke of 
an uplifted look of surprise and grief. A life-long companion of his, 
Bev. Eleazer Smiith, says : " From his boyhood I have known him inti- 
mately, and for ten years I lived but a few steps from his door ; and 
yet, in all these seasons of confidential intercourse I never heard a 
sentence that savored of envy, uncharitableness, or bigotry, or that 
might not have been safely spoken in the presence of anj one who 
was the subject of our conversation." What a record for the tomb- 
stone of any mortal man is this ! Blessed is such a memory ! 

But the last few years of his life were spent in a cloud. In June, 
1866, fourteen years after his election to the episcopacy, traveling in 
Colorado to meet the Conference at Empire City, he was arrested by 
a partial paralysis, particularly of the vocal organs. He had traveled 



OsMON Oleander Baker. 340 

by a liard stage route some five liimdred mileSj with no rest, and poor 
and irregular food, before liis attack. He reached the seat of the 
Conference, however, and examined and ordained the candidates in his 
own private room. Fully aware of the serious nature of his illness, 
he turned his steps homeward over the same dreaded and intolerable 
route, as the only one open to him. That he reached his home alive 
was wonderful. 

With the best care and medical treatment he slightly improved, 
and as his mental faculties seemed unimpared, for two or three 
years he met several of his Conferences and attended the episcopal 
meetings. He was able to travel, visit, and attend worship at his 
home church, in Concord, till within a few days of his death. But 
at length his noble frame and constitution gradually sunk away, and 
his power of utterance slowly failed. But he gave utterance to a 
uniform peace with God. He said that " through all his feebleness 
he had felt fully resigned to the will of God ; and enjoyed an un- 
interrupted evidence of his acceptance with him." To his dear com- 
panion, just before his death, he expressed perfect peace in Jesus, 
and entire trust in him. Among his last expressions were thanks 
to his brother for coming to visit him, thanks and love to the writer 
of this brief sketch, (who was then in Georgia,) with the expressed 
hope to meet him in heaven. Then, on the 20th of December, 
1871, in the bosom of his own dear family, he peacefully passed away 
from scenes of suffering and toil to one of heavenly repose and holy 
delight. 

" Devout men carried [him] to his burial, and made great lamenta- 
tion over him." In a few weeks after his death, the eldest daughter, 
Mrs. Bev. E. F. Bitcher, a lady of rare culture and piety, followed 
him to her final rest, joining the precious tender branches of the 
family gone before, where, in blissful enjoyment, they still wait the 
coming of the wife, the mother, and surviving daughter, who will 
restore and complete, in God's good time, the now broken circle. 

His funeral, at Concord, was numerously attended, a large depu- 
tation being present from the Boston Breacher's Meeting. Bev. 
Brothers Adams, Manson, Drew, Kellogg, Haven, Warren, ITpham, 
Smith, Batten, and Bike, took part in the solemn exercises. Dr. 
Warren spoke of the bishop as the president of the first theological 



350 Meitiodist Bishops. 

scHool of our Churcli. Dr. Upham said, a discourse he heard liim 
preach, at Middletown had influenced the whole course of his life. 
Hev. Eleazer Smith said he had known him from a little boy, beloved, 
mild, and dutiful, and he could not recall a single harsh or improper 
word of his. Dr. Patten had met him more than forty-three years 
before, at the seminary in Wilbraham, and they went to Middle- 
town together, roomed, studied, prayed, and were licensed to preach 
together ; and for fourteen years have dwelt side by side in Concord ; 
and he felt that his place was among the mourners, etc. 

At the request of the Boston Preacher's Meeting, memorial serv- 
ices were held there subsequently. Here, Bev. Elisha Adams, D.D. 
read a well- written and appreciative eulogy. 

He showed how the lamented bishop filled the apostolic episcopal 
character given by Paul. Blameless, sound in doctrine, the husband 
of one wife, (a suitable one,) vigilant, sober-minded, of good behavior, 
given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker, not given 
to filthy lucre, patient, not a brawler, not covetous, one that ruleth well 
his own house, not a novice, of good report of those which are without. 

The religious and secular press followed with many appreciative 
notices and eulogies, and the whole Church and citizens, especially 
of !N"ew England, joined in the more intense sorrow of the ministry 
and family, for all felt there had fallen 2ijprince in Israel. 





^'^^s^^:.-^'..^^ ■ 



'~=cl inr J c:B^^ttre from 3-J'^S^'^ 



IE]E¥; Eo Mo AMESg Bo Bo -• 

iF THE 5ISH0PS DF THE METHDBIST EPrSCQP-AL CHUP.CH. 



Edward Raymond Ames. 



BY BISHOP GILBERT HAVEN. 



DEATH is the problem of the ages. Life is according to visible 
and working law. Not so death. " Thou makest life in man and 
brute," is perceivable with the eye of reason. " Thou makest death," 
is without reason. " He cometh forth as a flower," one can believe 
rational. " He is cut down," is irrational. Evolution does not require 
this disruption and corruption. It does not demand that the form 
which was the abode of the highest living, should become dust and 
nothingness. It does not admit of that event in its line of progress. 
Death breaks into its law, defies it, destroys it. 

Many thoughts arise within us as we pause at the pausing bier that 
bears all that is mortal of Bishop Ames. They may be classified thus : 
His powers, his work, his influence. 

His powers, original and developed. His native ability was of 
no mean order. Few men have appeared in this land, prolific of great 
men as any land, that have been his equals ; none, in his line, his supe- 
rior. Born of the best New England stock, a kinsman of Fisher 
Ames and all that not unknown family, artist, judge, orator, inventor, 
manufacturer, the uniter of the continent with the railway that has 
also united Asia and Europe by way of America, surely there is some- 
thing in the blood that tells. The first of the name came over in 
1633 and settled in South Braintree, adjoining Dorchester. One 
son survived that sire. From him all of that name have descended, 
of whom this last is, in no few respects, the first. 

His father moved to Ohio in 1787, and he was born in a town that 
bears his family name, in 1806. To his father and others who went 
out with him from this section, of whom was, notably, Col. Battelle, 
from whom have descended several Methodist preachers, is it due that 
Methodism was introduced into that part of the State. Sternest of 
Puritans, they became the most active of Methodists. It was at the 
State College of Ohio that he met his change and fate. Dr. Trimble 



354 Methodist Bishops. 

tells the story in his semi-centennial sermon of last year. Thej were 
classmates, roommates. A revival broke ont. He went first to the 
altar, and his slower compai/ion followed. At a camp-meeting he says 
he heard a little girl pleading in prayer for her mother, and his proud 
heart broke, his strong will surrendered. A little child did lead him. 
Each entered into Christ then and there. He had thought of entering 
the law, but he was thrust into the ministry. A license was forced 
upon him, and he was constrained, within and without, to enter on 
the sacred calling. 

He went by direction of Bishop Eoberts into Illinois, then a region 
of miasma, wolves, and Indians. Among its scattered settlers he 
began his work. His clear-headed, strong-headed qualities soon revealed 
themselves. He rose almost instantly to that not unimportant super- 
intendency, the headship of the educational department of the Church 
in that State. Hence he was called to the pastorate, and early in his 
ministerial career to the district eldership. The wise superintendent 
who had taken him from an Ohio college for work on the Mississippi, 
put him into yet higher work on the farther frontier. Bishop Ames 
never tired of talking of Bishop Roberts. He had many a quaint 
story to tell of the pioneer Bishop who first broke the line of a celibate 
episcopacy, and that, too, by ]^ew England votes and management. 
He revered him as his real Church father. This first of the anti- 
celibate Bishops was the last of the exclusively horseback Bishops. 
He used to tell how greatly Bishop . Boberts deplored the degeneracy 
of the age when he learned that Bishop Soule had sold his horse and 
taken to the stage-coach. The Church had lost its power when its 
superintendents indulged in such luxuries 1 What would the Indiana 
forester have said had he seen his successors flying over the land at 
thirty, and even forty, miles an hour, lapped in the luxury of a 
Pulhnan car ? But without such luxury their lives would cease much 
sooner than if riding on the old Methodist horse, best of its class, as 
stories told even of Bishop Roberts show, who was like Ariel, not in 
style but in swiftness, and who rode, like him, 

"Thorough bush, thorougli briar, 
Thorougli flood, thorough fire." 

This westernmost Bishop having enticed the Ohio youth to Indiana 



Edward Raymond Ames. 355 

and Illinois, now gets liini across tlie Mississippi as missionary to tlie 
Indians. The old blood that probably fought King Philip, and had no 
small share in those first wars of the colonies, was still powerful to 
contrive and conquer, but was directed in another channel. It was not 
to light, but to protect, the Indian that he went. From the great 
Lake to Texas he rode, visited, preached, organized, became every- 
where the friend and confidant of the red man. He sat at their council 
fires as still as they. Pie spoke as few words and as weighty. He 
subsided into silence after speaking, as stolidly. He was their master 
in their own line. 

A story reported of him strikingly illustrates this Indian-like trait. 
Their law. of hospitality forbids their murdering a guest. A chief, 
deadly hostile to the whites, killed every such a one who came within 
his domain. Mr. Ames was warned by another chief of this habit. 
He walked into his lodge, flung his blanket on the ground and said, 
'' I shall sleep here to-night." A white man slain was thrown across 
his body in the night. He quierly removed him, said not a w^ord, rose 
in the morning, and left. That was out-Indianing the Indian. And 
this when a young man but little rising thirty. He soon began to 
attract public attention. At the General Conference of 1840, of which 
he was a delegate when only thirty-four, he was elected to the mis- 
sionary secretaryship for the frontier. He traveled six thousand miles, 
or round the earth, in that quadrennium. In 1844 his name was more 
prominently before the Conference for Bishop than that of any other 
western man, but he himself declined in favor of Dr. Hamline, who 
was thereby elected. He labored in the general work for eight years, 
when he was placed in that chair. How admirably he has filled it all 
the Church knows. 

The Christian Church, which is one and the same in all ages, always 
proves its divine origin by its providential leaders. States rise and 
fall, fall when it seems as if they must continue to rise. They have 
no more real life in themselves than individuals. They have a mission 
while they live, as have certain men, but no continuity of life. No 
scholar has yet been able to explain how it was that the long-haired, 
yellow-haired Achaians on the rocky isthmus of Corinth, shot up into 
such a wonder of literature, and art, and arms, and laws, and every 
thing that makes a State, even to a new religion, most beautiful of all 



356 Methodist Bishops. 

non-Christian faiths ; how thej bred poets, philosophers, warriors, 
sculptors, architects, orators, every sort of genius to its utmost capacity, 
and then in four or five centuries as completely and utterly disappeared 
as an originating force. From Achilles to Alexander — that is, about 
the leno^th of time from Joshua to Daniel — this Greek life existed. 
Whence came it, why went it, none can tell. Equally marvelous and 
mysterious is the Egyptian age. We know not even its chronology. 
We should not even know of its existence but for the startling monu- 
ments that yet stare at us, with wide dilating orbs, out of the slime 
of the 'Nile. " We only know they came and went." 

Thus, too, with later and older em23ires. Assyria, Babylon, Persia, 
what are they now ? What have they been these twenty and thirty 
centuries? What, too, are now the Moorish splendors of Spain, or 
even the greater splendors of the Spain of Charles and Philip ? What 
has Holland to do with the world ? Yet it filled the world's eye when 
Alva sought to extinguish it, and when the Silent William saved it. 
But contrast this decay of em23ires with the Church. Even the apos- 
tate and apostatizing Churches exist. Pome would have never been 
heard of again, after the overthrow of the fourth century, but for the 
Church. When Constantine created the new Pome on the Bosphorus, 
the old Pome was ready to vanish away — did vanish away. The Tiber 
covered its palaces with its mud. The streets were empty of people ; 
there was no sound nor language ; their voice was not heard. Then 
a minister of the Church kept the old flame alive, nursed the old spirit, 
fought for old Pome, and split the Church because new Pome refused 
to recognize his supremacy, and set up again the throne of the Csesars 
as it is unto this day. 

What keeps the Greek Church alive ? As in the days of Polycarp, 
is Smyrna to-day. As in the days of John, is Patmos. As in the 
days of Chrysostom, will be Constantinople. No one doubts, least of 
all the Sultan, that St. Sophia will yet, and ere long, hear the bursts of 
sacred song, the Gregorian chant and hymns of John of Damascus, 
which our own Hymnal contains ; will yet repeat the prayer of St. 
Chrysostom, which the English prayer book daily repeats ; will yet 
listen to the voices that shall proclaim, not " God is great and Moham- 
med is his Prophet," but, " God is Love, and Christ Jesus is his Son, 
our Saviour." The Church lives, not men, not nations, save as they 



Edwakd Raymond Ames. 357 

live in it. Weak, perishable, contentious, corrupt even, it does not die. 
It struggles out of its weakness and corruption, fights its own sins, 
raises up foes of its own household to save the house, creates new 
branches of the same vine, finds Athanasius, Augustine, Huss, Luther, 
Calvin, Knox, Cranmer, Wesley, whenever the exigency calls, always 
finds them, and thus moves on and up, eternal alternation, but eternal 
existence. 

This law of all time, traceable on the life map of man as clearly 
as the seasons are traced on the face of the earth — this law, which 
bred Enoch, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, Daniel, as the 
age required, as surely works to day, and in our and every true 
Church of. Christ. 

It brought forth a Fletcher, as even an enemy of our Church asserts 
in his late history of the Church of England, to uphold the great doc- 
trines of Wesleyan Methodism when Wesley himself had neither time 
nor training for that especial work. It brought forth Coke to run 
through the earth, and get the world ready for the coming of that 
formal and organized Church. It brought forth Asbury, taking him 
from the sheepfold to make him the founder of our American Israel 
— the David whose kingdom, despite many a revolt and conflict within 
and without, shall never be taken away from him. It brought forth 
a M'Kendree to open the vast West with his eloquence and organize 
it with his common-sense. It brought forth a Lee to attack and capt- 
ure the granite hills and hearts and heads of New England, and who, 
had he been like faithful with M'Kendree to the Church Wesley had 
created and Asbury was governing, to its instincts and aims, would 
have also been co-administrator with M'Kendree and Asbury over the 
regions his eloquence, piety, and faith had conquered. 

Under what line of providential interj^osition does Edward Ray- 
mond Ames appear ? A glance at the Church at his coming on the 
stage will show. Born in Oxford, reborn in Baltimore, our Church 
was compelled to go through all the conditions of infancy and vassal- 
age. It was a child in its nurse's arms in England during all the life 
of Wesley, up to the creation of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 
America. Of high birth, it was of low breeding. The first scholar 
of his country begat it, as did the first scholar of his country, the Gen- 
tile Church ; but neither Wesley nor Paul could make the Church 



358 Methodist Bishops. 

wliicli, under God the Holy Gliost tliey Lad created, instantly self- 
reliant or socially recognized. It was of slaves and freedmen in the 
days of Paul; it was of miners, and those of no reputation, in the 
days of Wesley. J^ot many mighty were called. Yet each in its 
own order. The Gentile Church slowly grew to its imperial height, 
assimilatino^ school and State to its own vital idea. The Church of 
AYesley has grown according to its law until school and State recog- 
nize its power and largely acknowledge its sway. 

To do this needful work new instruments were needed. Neither 
Paul nor Wesley could have done tlie work the Church demanded a 
century after their time. Lesser men, perhaps — lesser certainly in 
creative gifts — would be larger men at that later hour of its growth. 
Wesley could not be an Adam Clarke nor a Pichard Watson. Asbury 
could not be a Wilbur Fisk. '' JN^ew times demand new measures and 
new men." 

The new measures the Church demanded at the incoming of Ames 
were twofold : those relating to its own internal structure, those adjust- 
ing its relations to the State and the whole world. In a word, there 
was needed a careful study of its economy or polity, that it might 
be the more equable, more pliable, and more forceful ; and a no less 
careful study of the Church as a unit in its work outside of its central 
idea, the saving and sanctifying of souls, that is, its educational, literary, 
political, missionary duties. 

The Church came out of the conflict of '44 a vastly different 
organization from what it went in, even as the nation came out of its 
conflict for right and for existence a vastly different being from what 
it was at the beginning of the war. Both Church and State in that 
struggle with the slave power reeled and staggered, and well-nigh be- 
came first its slave and then its victim. 

How near the Church came to that enslavement can be seen by 
reading that dreadful decree issued in Baltimore in 1840, forbidding 
the saintliest sister testifying against the most corrupt man who had his 
name on the Church books at a Church trial, if «o be said destroyer 
was a white man, and said sister was a slave, be she black, brown, 
yellow, or, as not a few of them were, white. 

Then the Church bowed itself; then it well-nigh tumbled into 
destruction. Even so, close to the hour of the Church's humiliation 



Edwaed Kaymond Ames. 359 

did tlie State bow down, banish from the mails written or printed 
words favoring human liberty, forbid the right of petition, and at last, 
in 1850, order every man to help rescue a freeman flying from slavery 
on penalty of fine and imprisonment. 

See how this leader showed that he w^as the new man for the new 
measures. He w^as of the old States-right, pro-slavery school of poli- 
tics, the political friend of Jesse Bright and his school. So prominent 
was he in their councils, so w^ise and w^eighty, that he was offered a 
United States Senatorship from that State when that offer meant, to a 
man of his capacity, the Presidency. Yet he left that school ecclesi- 
astically before the Conference of 1844. He came back from those 
long tours. through the wilderness full of blood and youth and sagacity 
a free man, a free minister, determined to aid in establishing a free 
Church. Full of phlegm and purpose, quiet as the Indian with whom 
he had so long associated, and as intense, he appears in New York to 
take part in the great w^ork of saving the Church from becoming the 
slave of the slave power. J^ot known in debates, he is known in 
council, in caucus — that wise but much-abused word — in planning 
and pushing on the side of Christ and humanity. He emerges 
next to the front, the leading nominee who nominates the successful 
candidate. 

Eight years later the young man, now^ ripe with middle-life, takes 
the helm. The Church is yet distracted and enfeebled, is yet rent 
with internal divisions on the great and ever-increasing problem. 
How will this adherent of the party that had been changed from its 
original aim of universal liberty to becoming the adherent and propa- 
gator of human bondage ; how will this man, as full of prejudices as 
an Indian, and these prejudices all against the abolitionists, deport 
himself toward the growing question ? Let a single incident answer. 

He came officially to the 'New England Conference at its session 
in Lynn in 1854. Great curiosity, and I may truly say, great wi-ath, 
awaited his coming. At a session of the Philadelphia Conference 
held a few weeks before, a few brethren — Lamb and Long and one or 
two more, zealous for the enforcement of the Church law against min- 
isterial slave-holding — had arrested the character of several super- 
numeraries, able men, some of them, on the ground that they held 
slaves. The young Bishop curtly, and in his style so familiar for so 



360 ]\rETHODiST Bishops. 

many years, said to tlie questioners as to whether tliey held slaves, 
^' Why don't you ask them if they washed their faces this morning?" 
Of course our Conference raved, and we hot-heads determined that he 
should answer for the insult when he came here. The news was hardly 
cold when he walked up the aisle of the old church in his old style, 
quiet, dignified, resolute. 

Nothing betokened his knowledge of any thing peculiar to 'New 
England, or of this controversy that was racking the Church, until the 
report on slavery was read. It was an off year, and a mild brother 
had drawn a mild report. As soon as it was read the Bishop said, 
"That report needs to be strengthened. It is not up to the doctrine 
of the Church. Our fathers knew what they were about when they 
legislated on slavery." Such a " laying out " of the abolitionists was 
never seen in this antislavery body. Of course there was an inward 
chuckle, and his victory over the Conference was complete. 

This word illustrates the sort of man he was. He detected the 
w^eak point in his adversary, and struck it hard and quick and deadly. 
He was not merciful in these blows. He loved sarcasm for its own 
sake. Like the biting Johnson he enjoyed keenly his victories. He 
delighted to lay his antagonist dead wdth a rapier thrust that appeared 
accidental, so indifferently, seemingly, was it driven home. 

It also reveals another trait in his character, adhesion to law. " Our 
fathers understood what they were about." " The Discipline, the Dis- 
cipline is the Constitution of the Church," was his motto. It may be 
wrong, but it must be legally made right. His was a judicial mind 
that studied the bearings of his every official act in the light of law. 
"When petitioned earnestly to re-appoint a brother in this Conference, 
whom another Bishop had appointed, as he judged, beyond his right 
to do, on the plea that nobody would know it, " What I do here 
meets me in Oregon," was his reply. And when the next General 
Conference censured his colleague for that act, and a gift of $30,000 
was saved to the Church only by that censure, the wisdom of the 
refusal of Bishop Ames came potently to every eye, and to none more 
clearly than to the Church he had refused to favor. " I have sought 
through your record," said a distinguished adversary of his, " to find 
occasion to complain of your administration, and I can find none." 
" Because I never give occasion for such complaint," was the confident 



Edward Eaymond Ames. 361 

reply. This was the first characteristic of his nature, " Obey the law 
as it is." 

The second was like unto it, Move slowly to its modification. How 
slowly he did move often ! How we complained that he set himself 
so firmly against all new movements ! How the radical in polity or 
principles often denounced him ! Yet, strangely enough, when the 
victory was won, he was the first to be at the coronation. He probably 
had more triumphs of this sort than any of his colleagues. He was 
the first Bishop who presided at a Conference when a colored man was 
voted into membership with his white brethren. It was at the New 
England Conference, when our honored Brother Mars was seated at 
our side. He was the first to appoint such a brother to a Church 
chiefly of white members ; and when he was told that, a year or two 
later, that brother was invited to such a Church, "Had I been presid- 
ing," he said, " I would have appointed him." He was the first to 
preside over a lay Conference. With an eye to that fact, for he had 
an eye to every thing, he took the East Maine Conference, in 1871, 
where the first Electoral Conference was to be held. Though he had 
opposed the movement, he had done it so as to give force and stability 
to it. When it had conquered, he still determined to give it force 
and stability. Invited to preside at this lay Conference, he remarked, 
" I will go. This is history." The address made on that occasion, full of 
loyalty to the Church, was the key-note of every subsequent Confer- 
ence and address. 

He was slow to accept a new idea. Steadily he fought against the 
ministerializing of woman. Yet, had he lived, we doubt not, some 
General Conference, not far oif, with his approval, would have given 
her official and clerical recognition, and his hands would have been 
the first to have been placed upon her head. 

Chaffing an ardent devotee of the black man, he said, "I sat at 
the table with colored ministers at New Orleans, though I confess it 
rose against the gorge so to do." " O," said the other brother, " I did 
that years ago." '' Cock crowing at midnight," was his curt reply. 
He never crowed till dawn of day. At midnight, like the wise virgin, 
he slumbered and slept, but he was always ready at break of day to 
hail the morn, and lead it with his shrill clarion, up the skies. That 
wise sleeping was his mode of wise working. He did not so much 



362 Methodist Bishops. 

023pose as slumber. He was not hostile, lie was indifferent. In this 
respect other men labored and he entered into their labors. 

In all this tumultnous season between 1844 and 1860, when papers 
were being established to confront the rising idea, when General Con- 
ferences were full of debate as to how to settle the nnsettleable, he 
was silent. He gave the enemy no help, if he gave the canse none. 
He steadied the ark, as a priest had a right to do, while it went slowly 
moving np the rongh hill to Zion's chosen seat. When he saw the 
tide rising he waited, seemingly indifferent, slightly hostile, never 
helpful. When it w^as at its full he " took the flood and rode to pros- 
perous fortune." He managed successful ideas rather than labored to 
make them successful. 

This quality of his nature gave him the claim to his title of the 
statesman of the Ej)iscopacy. It is the function of a statesman to 
manage the ship of State now, not yesterday, not to-morrow. What 
makes Beaconsfield rule, and Bismarck, is that they discern the times. 
What gave Washington his pre-eminence is his knowing just what and 
when and how much to do. Adams, a far keener intellect, lacked the 
governmental faculty. Bishop Ames had this faculty in excess. It 
was his strength and his weakness. It made him wise in the hoar of 
triumph, but sometimes too slow in seeing the necessity and surety of 
triumph. He threw obstacles in the way because he wished the 
progress, if it was to be, to be slow. The same quality of nature 
made the leaders of thought cry out against Lincoln, and made Lincoln 
himself say, twenty days before he issued his edict of emancipation, ''It 
is the Pope's bull against the comet." He did not see that the hour 
was ripe until it was fully ripe. That twenty days changed Lincoln's 
whole point of view and of duty. '' These are my views to-day," said 
the same wise leader. " I can't say what they will be to-morrow. I 
let events bunt up against me." So did BishojD Ames. He never ran 
after events. They rose to him. When he felt them he accepted 
and led them. 

He was ready to improve the workings of our system, so that it 
should run the more easily. Bishop Janes introduced into the work 
of the appointments the more patient investigation of every Church 
and preacher. Bishop Ames added to it the open Conference with 
Church and minister. Some of you well remember the intense secrecy 



Edavakd Raymond A.aiks. 363 

which brooded over, those meetings, wlien not a leak was sprung 
throno^h a whole week of intense excitement. I remember when a 
member of a Conference, expecting to return, took his seat in a side 
pew to see the faces of the other brethren as the announcement shot 
them up or down. The second name he heard was his own, and he 
heard no more. Sometimes that secrecy yet partially prevails, but the 
silence is for the most part broken. This silence was broken first by 
Bishop Ames. As we were walking once in the corridors of the 
Senate Chamber at Washington he remarked that he was the first to 
request the elders to confer with the brethren as to their appointments. 
He broke that silence so that to-day the preacher on the poorest w^ork 
is as apt to know wdiere he is going as his most popular brother. He 
also was the first, at least in this generation, to hold only afternoon 
sessions of his cabinet. This usage he rarely, if ever, violated. 

His admirable business habits, his rapid faculty of generalization, 
his quick perception of men, his almost unerring instinct, which made 
shams hardly even dare to presume to be realities in his presence — 
these gave him an easy mastery both of Conference business and of 
the complicated work of arranging preacher and Church. 

These qualities of mind found a satisfactory realm for their fullest 
exercise in the olfice and Avork of a Bishop in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. He was never possessed w^ith the fault-finding spirit as to his 
own Church. As years wore on and wore him down, his confidence 
and joy in his Church grew and prevailed. He found for all his 
faculties amplest room and verge in her communion. Her doctrines 
it was his delight to preach. He did not cavil and palter in a double 
sense, but preached the fullness of her truths from the fullness of his 
soul, mind, and strength. He had no new gospel either of the Bible 
or of Methodism. How rich were his sneers at modern sciolists, too 
often in the ministry of our Church, who think the}^ have new light 
on inspiration, the atonement, the resurrection of the body, or any 
other great Bible doctrine ! Gaussen was good enough for him on in- 
spiration, and equally stalwart works on other Christian doctrines. 

ISTo less faithful was his attachment to the order of the Church. He 
had no sciolism here. It had served him well even while on his hardest 
circuits. It could serve no son of his w^orse or better than himself. He 
W'as proud of its doctrines and discipline, of its position and prospects,. 



364 Methodist Bishops. 

of past and future. He had seen it grow from the day of his accession 
to the superintendency to such port and power as attracted universal 
attention. A broken, dismembered, distracted Church, cleft in twain 
from top to bottom by ecclesiastical civil war, he lived to see it fill the 
whole land. He believed in its organic idea before he became one of 
its rulers, as well as when he ruled so wisely and so well. 

He never questioned the Church idea, was never looking enviously 
at his neighbor's Christianity, never aspiring to the prelacy of papacy, 
or mere Episcopalianism ; nor was he, on the other hand, belittling his 
own Church, and wishing it to be like the less organized bodies about 
it. He was Wesley to the core, and that mighty master would have 
found no more congenial or appreciative spirit in all his followers than 
that of this ascended son. 

Bishop Ames w^as a grand American. As his Church was good 
enough and great enough for him, so was his country. He never saw 
a foreign shore except on the opposite side of the St. Lawrence. How 
often has he been urged to visit England, that he might give our 
illustrious brothers of that illustrious land an American specimen 
unlike any of his distinguished brethren whom we have sent, and who 
have so nobly represented us ! His wit and wisdom, his pathos and 
penetration, his pure English gift of cold, cutting sarcasm, that gives 
its leader control of Parliament, w^ould have amazed and delighted 
our British cousins. And that vast fabric of social and civil life, ven- 
erable, and potent, would have reinspired him. It will be a long regret 
that he never saw England, and that England never saw him. 

But his love for his own country was not unlike their love for 
theirs. It was a passion. It possessed him wholly. He had not 
threaded those pathless forests, rode, solitary and alone, over those 
more pathless prairies, and not felt the sweeping power of the patriotic 
passion. He grasped the grandeur of America as fully as did his 
grandfather at Yalley Forge, whose inspiration was drawn from that 
fount which kindled a co-operative spark at Lexington, and which 
blazes forth yet on the monument on its green, " Sacred to liberty and 
the rights of mankind." Sacred, indeed, is the soil of America, sacred 
to man and to Christ. Our friend felt this in every fiber of his soul. 
He was first, last, always American. 

But we must keep the bier waiting no longer. Time would fail 



Edward Kaymond Ames. 365 

lis to tell his many traits of strength, his keen blade of satire, which 
was not always judiciously, tliough often judicially, swung ; his giant's 
strength, which he sometimes, forgetting,* used as a giant ; his pene- 
trative preaching, so wisely dividing the word of truth, making the 
driest fact and theme blossom as Aaron's rod under tlie touch of his 
quickening spirit. He was pre-eminently a preacher to preachers. 
I^ot so crowd-drawing as some, he was clergy-drawing above almost 
every rival. Condones ad clerum might his sermons and addresses 
well be called. How greatly is it to be regretted that these wonderful 
talks at Conference, talks in his chair, talks at odd moments, and for 
but a moment, have not been gathered up ? For years I have felt that 
a stenographer should have accompanied him from Conference to Con- 
ference, unknown to him, and have taken down these sententious 
sayings. Alas T they are as water spilled upon the ground. They 
can never be gathered up. l^o Plato will reproduce this Methodist 
Socrates ; no Boswell this American Johnson. 

Like Johnson he was a good talker, like him a clubable man. He 
loved to talk, man to man. He could say his best, which was often 
his worst, face to face. He disliked oratory. He was a conversation- 
alist of high degree. Plis stories were as numerous and odd as Lin- 
coln's, with more of a sting to their point, though no more to their 
teller. For he struck the blow from love of striking, and scattered 
his firebrand, and felt, if he did not saj^, it is sport. Yet it should be 
said that no man treated better those who struck back. He liked blow 
for blow, took as well as gave, respected a fair foe, and never held 
malice in his heart. How many an encounter have his brethren wit- 
nessed in his Conferences. Yet the low smile that just gleamed about 
mouth and eyes betokened the feeling within, that he wished to make 
a point and not to kill his adversary. ]N"o keener wit has been seen in 
our Church or out of it. South was not more brilliant ; Father Taylor 
and Cartwright and Lee and Eddy, and other Methodist celebrities in 
their line were not his superiors. He was like and unlike himself all 
the time, original, often extraordinary. Could a volume of his say- 
ings be secured, they would be prized as a literary phenomenon. 

But another touch should here be given to the portrait. He was 

not a mere wit, cutting without cause. A punster, cheapest of wits, 

he never was. He disdained that college height of intellectual sport 
22 



366 Methodist Bishops. 

as below the dignity of a man. He never lost his dignity, not false 
and strained, bnt natural and easy. To a stiff-laced brother, he said, 
in his low but shrill tones, '^ You groom your dignity carefully, put on 
a brass-mounted harness, drive it about in a very stately style. Mine 
runs loose on the prairie ; but I reckon I have as good an article as 
you." That was the key of his nature. He was ever self-conscious, 
self -respectful. He carefully fulfilled Bacon's direction, " Out of office 
assume not ; in o:^ce, be as if born to it." 

He was the most dignified of all his colleagues when in official 
place. ISTo one ever became the royal seat better than he. His very 
jests put on the purple robe. They were distinguishing jests, keep- 
ing him and those he was talking with, each in his place. He was 
every inch a king. 

As a preacher he was persuasive as well as practical. His last 
tour of camp-meetings illustrated this trait. For years his enfeebling 
health had prevented these old-time deeds. But the year after the 
last General Conference he made up a list of cam23-meeting visita- 
tions. Stories are told of his marvelous power over those great con- 
gregations. Feeble health made him begin almost in a whisper, but 
he rose in feeling and voice till his tones resounded through the 
woods. The old-time shout was in the camp. Ministers were sur- 
prised and shaken. He strode round the platform, shaking hands and 
shouting. The younger men had never seen him after this fashion, 
only the old men of Indiana and the trans-Mississippi. To one look- 
ing a little cool, an editor, and therefore officially critical, the Bishop, 
as he gave him his hand, seeing his critical displeasure, said : " I do 
not often get excited, but when I do, I'm as wild as an Indian." 

That tour undoubtedly shortened his days, but it also carried out 
his idea, which he never abandoned, to cease at once to work and live. 
He knew he was past the allotted boundary. He knew the earthly 
house of his tabernacle was dissolving. He meant it should dissolve 
heroically. The old chief would die at the head of the army. He 
would shout on the embattled hosts as he dropped from the saddle. 

But few specimens of his sermons survive. Dr. Eddy has por- 
trayed him in a sketch published in his life. Dr. Stevens also. A 
scrap lies before me which gives a faint idea of one type of his power. 
It may be worth your hearing as a specimen of one style : — 



Edward Raymond Ames. 367 

I imagine when Christ calls home his old, scarred, bnttered veterans of tlie 
cross, who have stood up against sin, hell, and the devil and wicked men — 
stood as the anvil to the stroke — when God lets them in through the gates into 
that city, the angels will say to each other, "Look! there is the travail of his 
soul ; there is the purchase of his blood ; there are human beings from the 
dusty battle-fields of earth — from that land of sin ; there are those who stood 
up for God — who counted not their lives, fortunes, or any thing else dear to 
them, that they might win Christ." I don't know about this, but some of us 
will know before long. We shall be introduced to tho*e who have gone home 
before. We shall not be ashamed of Christ, but rejoice in that he counted us 
worthy to suffer for his name's sake, I think when that time comes, every 
redeemed soul from earth will be a sort of walking wonder in the golden 
streets, to be gazed at and admired of all who love the Lord Jesus Christ. 
Then we shall hear the finale of the whole matter, "Well donel " Brother, did 
you ever think what that means when God Almighty speaks it? That '*well 
done!'' means heaven, glory, immortality, eternal life! When God says, "Well 
done !" there are no temptations, trials, or dangers after that. 

We must bring this life to its close. He died as he lived, loving 
his Church, loving his Saviour, not weak in either love, not unmanly. 
To Bishop Simpson he talked, only the day before his death, of men 
and matters pertaining to the Church. 

He talked freely with Dr. Edwards, Presiding Elder of the dis- 
trict where he lived. He spoke of the resurrection as a living reality, 
not as a coming out of Hades, not a mere going up from the body, 
but as a truth, the word of God, simple, clear, sublime. One night, 
when he could not sleep, he said he had passed it contrasting his own 
condition with that of the early Christians. " What a difference be- 
tween this room as a place to meet death and the caves and dungeons 
where many of God's saints have been compelled to die ! I would 
sin if I murmured." The day before his death, to Dr. Kynett and 
Bishop Simpson, he remarked, " In my Father's house are many man- 
sions, some here, some there. I go from these to those." How could 
that be said better ! 

He often dwelt on the tr%itJi of the Gospel, on the jpledge of the 
Lord Jesus. " Dying gives me no concern," he said. " The Lord 
has engaged to look after that, and if he fails to carry out his word 
he will lose more than I will. I have tried honestly and faithfully 
to serve him. I have done it very imperfectly. I know I am an 



368 Methodist Bishops. 

unprofitable servant. Bnt the atonement covers my shortcomings. 
I think the Lord makes mnch of good intentions when thej are 
backed up bj the right kind of effort to please him. He is not going 
to give me up now, Avhen I have never meant to give him up." How 
characteristic that expression. So is this : " Death is only a paren- 
thesis thrown into life." "We only begin to live after we die." " I 
can have a comfortable time to-day," he said on Easter Sunday, "in 
communing with a living Saviour. Because he lives I shall live also." 
The last hours were after the same pattern. " I am so weary," 
was the cry of nature. "O land of rest," the cry of faith. "Very 
weak," was his dying whisper. " All right ! " his ascending shout. 
Surely, " How blest the righteous when he dies !" How true in his 
case what, alas ! was far from true in his who penned the grand lines : 

" Life, like a dome of many-colored glass, 

Stains the white radiance of eternity, 

Untildeath tramples it to fragments. Die, 

If thou would st be with that which thou dost seek ! 

Follow where all is fled ! O hasten thither ! 

No more let life divide what death can join together." 

Two thoughts, and the bier moves on. Bishop Ames was like all 
men, finite, and finite means limited, ^one would have condemned 
indiscriminate praise more sharply than he. While a general reader 
in his youth, and a liberal quoter in his sermons prepared at that 
period from the older British poets, pre-eminently Pope, he did 
not pursue literature as largely as he might in his later days. His 
reading was in lines. In those lines he was an expert. He read 
every work on Africa as soon as it came out ; a standing order to 
send such books being at the depository in Baltimore. He watched 
with steadfast eye the journalism of the Church, not only as to its 
loyalty, but as to its ability. Still, he lacked somewhat the graces 
of scholarship. He did not seek to improve his talent, which he 
could have greatly done. 

He erred in not using the pen more. Like his great colleague 
who had just passed on before him, he put nothing to paper. Had he 
committed his thoughts to paper the Church would have had a 
treasury that would have grown richer and richer with advancing 
generations. What stories of Indian life, of pioneer experiences, of 



Edward Eaymond Ames. 369 

planting tlie Church on the Pacific coast ; what suggestions, what 
opinions, wliat conceptions would not the book have contained ! It is 
too much to hope that some secret closet may liide such a treasure. 
Wesley lives more after death than before, by his written words, and 
when his journal is all published and his cryptograph translated, he 
will rule the world and the Church yet more. 

Still, while he personally neglected this duty, he encouraged it 
in others. The first articles published by one of his colleagues after 
his election, which were over-much adversely criticised because they 
dealt with national duties, were advised by him, and one of them 
written at his house. For a long while he urged a Bishops' Year- 
book, which should give extracts of their annual work, the profits of 
which should be a fund at their disposal for helping the Church 
where they might decide to dispense it. To him was due the seal 
of your every parchment. Till his election, each Bishop had his own, 
as they of the Church South have to-day. He suggested a common 
seal, and its device an open Bible and the motto, " Preach the word." 
Bishop Morris wished the pastoral work referred to, and added. 
" Feed my sheep." 

Thus he was not cultureless, though too little inclined to certain 
kinds of desirable culture. The same defect exhibited itself in his 
indifference to art. ]^o picture hangs on his walls ; no thought of 
music, or art, or such like polish, seems to have been craved by him, 
though it should be said that the tender melodies of the Church easily 
drew tears from his eyes. He was to the last something of the In- 
dian, with whom he was so long identified. He despised much which 
society solicits. He almost seemed at times, in his proud, stalking 
indiiference, to verify Longfellow's hexameter : 

" How canst thou walk in our streets, who hast trod the green paths of the 
prairies." 

This defect was adjoined to a like characteristic scorn of pomp 
and parade. Sinvplex munditiis was his idea of house and person. 
Gravely, neatly, not over-richly dressed was house or person. A 
costly house, but costly with simplicity, was his idea. In others he 
liked display, just as he liked in others art and literature ; for himself 
he exhibited a stately indifference, not unworthy of a nobleman of 
high degree. 



370 Methodist Bishops. 

He was fortunate or otherwise in accumulating wealth. It came 
easily to him ; too easily, perhaps. But the defect attending such 
accumulation was alike easy. It is not easy for a clergyman to 
increase in riches, and not have set his heart upon them. It is not 
germane to his profession. He can increase in scholarship, govern- 
mental ability, pulpit renown, and not be covetous of these proper 
results and rewards of his profession. But accumulation of w^ealth 
is not ministerial, is, in fact, antiministerial. And he that too as- 
siduously seeks money is in danger of becoming its idolater. Grand 
as have been the vision and the aims of this Churchman, the means 
afforded to further those aims have not been commensurate. A little 
hardness the heart revealed when these appeals came before it. May 
we hope that the reported accumulations which he acquired may 
ultimately find outlets upon the many active church enterprises he 
inaugurated or so widely expanded ? 

A man has four periods after he is a man : The first ten years, from 
thirty to forty, give him his position; the second, his achievements 
in his position ; the third, his confirmation or establishment of his 
achievements; the fourth, the adjustment of these achievements to 
those which the men of the second decade behind him have brought 
into human evolution ; and then he takes his place among the stars 
and " rains influence " upon the generations following. 

Among those who will rain such influence from the heavens is 
Edward Raymond Ames. His grave, unfortunately separated from 
his predecessors — Asbury, Lee, and Waugh — but in the same city, will 
be visited by many and many a youthful preacher of his Church. 
His name will be a tower of strength to those who love that Church, 
and who will pass it on to the future more strong, more perfect, after 
its original idea. They will find in his life the stimulus to the ut- 
most zeal and the utmost freedom. 





msrw. wmi^-m^E^ mwrnm^o 



^aSSIOlilBX BISiOP 05" THE. lJ:E-C2ZrH.CS I^T A'ESTSHZS" AiTJlCA. 



Francis Burns. 



BY EEV. MARK TKAFTON, D.D. 



THE time was December 5, 1809 ; tlie place, an obscure street in 
the city of Albany, N. Y. ; a small nnpainted cottage, of two 
rooms, and a single story, a few plain articles of household furniture, 
a low cot bed in one corner of a small room. Here, on the above- 
named day, a man-child is born. The humble and poor parents are 
black, but respectable, hard-toiling persons. Whether they or their 
ancestors had been in the house of bondage we cannot say; yet the 
probabilities are, that at some past period they had been under the 
yoke, as there are very few colored people among us whose fathers did 
not pass through that fire ; but the parents of this new-born child bore 
the badge of an oppressed race ; an incubus is upon them wdiich they 
cannot throw off. Here is poverty, here is ostracism, here is the 
demon of a baptized diabolism, projecting its dark shadow even into a 
free State, and claiming the right to brand this child, and fix its status 
for all time. 

There is a bitter satire in the picture of William A. Seward, at 
this time a lad of eight years, boiTi and living in the same State, 
declaiming in the village school the stirring words : " We hold these 
truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and are 
endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among 
which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Well and 
bravely said. Master William, and you shall thunder these words in 
tingling ears of recreant senators and truckling politicians. They 
are ringing words, which have shaken the world for a hundred years, 
and now, at last, have thrown the moloch, slavery, from his pedestal, 
and shattered his kingdom. 

But how about this child just now born ? Many other children 
have been born since we have been looking into this cabin, in all por- 
tions of the earth : wdiite children, red children, tawny children, to 
each of whom, of whatever nationality, the " glittering generalities " 



3T4 Methodist Bishops. 

above quoted have a clear and fitting application : each may go on his 
way to build his own future, to mold his own character, to shape his 
own immortality, with nothing to oppose him or obstruct his way, save 
the common ills of humanity. But this waif thus cast upon the wild 
current, (his parents will call him Francis, their patronymic is Burns,) 
has a black skin, and the scant covering of his little round head is 
curly, like lamb's wool. "And what of that ? " asks a portly specta- 
tor with a gold-headed cane, and large, ancient seal dangling from his 
fob, who happens to be present. " What of that ? " Why, much of 
that, Mr. Burgher, and your honorable burghers of the good old 
Dutch city of Albany ; much to this poor child lying before us : your 
sons will call him a " nigger ! " Your schools will furnish for him no 
form, nor make provision for his education ; your church doors will be 
closed against him. ISTot one of your mechanics will take him as an 
apprentice to learn the ''art, trade, or mystery" of even a "cord- 
wainer ; " no one will admit him as a clerk in your grand warehouses, 
or employ him as messenger in your State-house, or as turnkey for 
your jail, nor, depth of meanness ! can he be admitted to your com- 
mon poor-house. But, bless you, the child need not die for all that ; 
he can do something for a living ! Yes, gentlemen, he can, perhaps, 
become a barber, and perform the sjmibolic act of taking your aristo- 
cratic noses between his thumb and finger and shaving you ; and there 
is a grim humor in the fact that his race have commenced this tonso- 
rial operation in some places in a sense somewhat above the original 
appreciation. Yes, he can, and will, do something, and be either a 
barber or a bishop ! 

And so we leave the little stranger for four years, when we again 
revisit the cottage, and there he is, toddling about, the prospective 
barber of the white man's election, the true bishop of Jehovah's 
choice. A puny looking child, slim, with sloping shoulders, (he takes 
after his mother in this,) with a head altogether disproportioned to his 
body ; too large for a barber, unwieldy for a boot-black ; his eyes large, 
serious, and dreamy ; his perceptive faculties Arell developed, causahty 
large, and a good show of ideality ; his organ of benevolence is large, 
and he has full conscientiousness, so that he will not be likely to drive 
a very hard bargain with the patrons of his future calling ; while the 
back part of his head, where firmness sits enthroned, stands well up, 



Francis Burns. 375 

indicating that he will be likely to stick to his calling, be it barber or 
bishop. 

His mother says he is a home boy ; he is not inclined to ramble, or 
seek the society of other lads ; he has the art of self-amasement. But 
the times are hard, we are at war with England, it is 1813, and pov- 
erty lays its hand heavily upon the little cottage. The father finds it 
difficult to provide for the wants of his growing family in the nari'ow 
limits of his labors, as he is permitted to do only negro's work. He 
can sweep out a store, or push a hand-cart, provided no white men 
wish to monopolize those employments. Any raw, unwashed, and 
nncombed scallawag just landed from the old world, if he has a Cau- 
casian complexion, may crowd to the wall this native-born American. 
The wife does all she can to help to keep the wolf from the door, and 
to keep her children together. But the struggle is vain — some of 
them must go, which shall it be ? But the eye of the All-seeing is 
upon this poor dwelling, and a call comes to this little four-year-old, 
just as clear and distinct, as shown by the circumstances and results, 
as that which came to his illustrious predecessor in founding a new era, 
"Up and get thee out of thy father's house, and I will make of 
the'e " a bishop of my people. True, he did not hear a voice, or 
receive an impression, even ; he heard only his mother's sad sigh as 
she sent them to a supperless bed. She did not hear it; she heard 
only her own moaning over the sufferings of her little flock. 

But God is preparing a warm nest for this little fledgling. If he 
stays at home he will die, and there wdll be no Bishop Burns, and so 
he must go out. But where ? how ? 

Just at this time there came one day to the city of Albany, with- 
the products of his land, and for supplies, a farmer from Greene 
County by the name of Atwood. In some way, perhaps in passing 
the humble home, he saw this little child and took a fancy to him, 
and the parents offered to give him to Mr. Atwood if he would take 
him home, to which he assented. He takes the baby into his car- 
riage, and drives home. We w^ould like to have been there when 
he unrolled the treasures from the city, among which w^as a black 
baby ! And it was a gift, a princely gift for the poor parents to 
make ; for in a southern market, or in the capital of Washington, he 
would have brought from $300 to $500 in gold, and there were plenty 



876 Methodist Bishops. 

of white-faced scoundrels who would have been only too glad to have 
negotiated the sale for a percentage ; and it would not have been the 
first baby, by many thousands, sold to replenish the LorcTs treasury. 

It must have been a divine impulse which moved the heart of this 
man to assume such a responsibility. Tears must pass before the child 
can be of any service in the family. It was not that they were child- 
less ; they had children of their own. But God wanted Francis 
Burns, and Burns must have a home where he can be fitted for his life 
work. 

But ^Ir. Atwood and his pious wife, who was herself a class-leader, 
a most devoted Christian, shall live forever in the annals of the Church 
and the gratitude of all Christian people for this heroic act, in the face 
of such prejudice, to receive into their house as one of the family, not 
a grown man or woman who could pay their way and more, but a 
helpless black baby, whose condition demanded constant care and nurs- 
ing, and who could give in return not even the pros]3ective promise of 
repaying the debt w^hen age and infirmities should rest upon his bene- 
factors. They had often read, " I was a stranger and ye took me in ;" 
and ere this, where they aU gather around the throne, they have heard 
the words : " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these,' ye 
have done it unto me." 

And now our little hero has enough to eat, warm clothing to wear, 
and a Christian home, and is removed from numerous temptations 
which would have beset him in his old home in Albany. He has the 
same care, and the same culture, moral and intellectual, as is bestowed 
on the other children of the family. He is put into the summer 
school. He is four years of age, life is just opening to his personal 
consciousness ; he will remember but very indistinctly facts, scenes, 
and incidents prior to his translation to this paradise. 

The dusky faces of his father and mother, with the tears of the 
pai-ting scene, will gradually fade from his memory ; the old Albany 
home, with its privations and want, will soon be as though they had 
not been, while his new home with its comforts fill his young heart. 
He wiU soon begin to receive the rich lessons God teaches through 
nature. He is out in the green fields, out of the crowded and filthy 
streets of a great city ; the birds sing to him, and the brooks murmur 
in his ear, and the cloud-shadows gambol over the shimmering glades, 



Francis Burns. 377 

and the sun-beams creep into liis little clianiber tlirougli climbing 
vines and rustling leaves. He wdll begin to think he is among wliite 
associates altogether, and so his African idiomatic language will be 
changed, and he is hedged in by strong religious influences. His 
musical ear is daily filled with Christian song, not the puerile trash 
often heard in our modern Sabbath-schools, but the grand old hymns 
of the Wesleys and Watts, and he bows with the Christian family in 
prayer. Who can doubt that the guiding hand of God was in all 
this, as in the infant life of Moses ? If he is not a Christian from 
childhood, he is saved from many of the vices of that impressible 
period ; the seed is being sown in a good soil, and while we do not 
know if his pious foster parents lived to witness the full harvest, we 
do know that they lived to see that their "labor was not in vain in 
the Lord." . 

Thus four years more of his life pass. Mr. Atwood is satisfied 
that the experiment will prove a success, and, fearing lest the boy 
should be enticed from his home, just as he may be of some service 
to himself, goes to Albany, and the parents of Francis execute legal 
indentures by which the lad is bound to Mr. Atw^ood until his ma- 
jority, " to learn the art, trade, and mystery of an agriculturist P 

He is in school with the white children of the district, who mani- 
fest no repugnance to associating with " Squire Atwood's colored boy," 
though in Albany the popular sentiment would hardly have tolerated 
such freedom with the son of the ''negro Burns." 

Country schools, it is well known, are periodical, not continuous as 
in cities and large towns ; two or three months in the winter for the 
older scholars, and a few months of a " woman's school," in summer 
for the little ones who are of no use .on the farm. It was this sum- 
mer school which Francis attended at first, and his application and 
great proficiency were most gratifying to his teacher and friends, and 
he thus demonstrated that the difference between the white and colored 
scholars was in the jpigment under the epidermis, rather than in the 
brain. 

Mr. Atwood, pleased with his attainments, and fearing for his 
health, as some symptoms appeared indicating a pulmonary affection, 
kept him in school both summer and winter. 

He is now to take an advanced step in his career, he is not a 



378 Methodist Bishops. 

Christian by experience, although he had a thorough Christian 
training. Upright, honest, serious beyond his years, he had the 
entire confidence of his foster parents, and the respect of the whole 
community, and on this he reposed ; he had not raised the great ques- 
tion, " What is sin ? " and his introspection had revealed nothing 
wrong. He had not consciously broken any law of God or man, and 
so was not a sinner, like many he saw around him. "What have I 
done?" he would ask when urged to repent; he had not been in 
circumstances to test his integrity, and to show his self -righteousness. 

Eut a change came on this wise : The teacher of the summer 
school which he attended was a Miss Stewart, daughter of a Baptist 
clergyman of that town. Pious and devoted, she looked as carefully to 
the hearts of her young charge as to the heads. She drew the hearts 
of her pupils to her by a powerful attraction ; she shall not be for- 
gotten. Mr. Burns himself bears a positive testimony to her piety, 
intelligence, firmness, and impartiality. She cherished a lively in- 
terest for this colored boy, the only one in all that region, and 
watched him with a motherly care, while he in return gave her the 
confidence and love of his ardent nature. 

One day (she tells the story) he had been guilty of some misde- 
meanor, and on being called to answer, to screen himself he framed a 
falsehood. To detect her favorite pupil in a deliberate lie was a 
most painful thing to the teacher. She took him alone, laid the 
whole matter clearly before him, wdth tears in her eyes she told him 
of his sin, of God's cognizance of his guilt, and the peril of his soul, 
and brought him to repent and turn from his sinful course. 

The arrow went to his heart; his self -righteousness received a 
fearful shock, his self-respect was gone ; he had betrayed the trust 
and forfeited the confidence of his kind teacher, and grieved the 
Spirit of God ; he was in great tribulation, " the pains of death got 
hold upon me, and the sorrows of hell compassed me about ; " and 
then " called he upon the name of the Lord ; " he earnestly sought 
and found regenerating grace ; he was filled with peace and joy in 
the Holy Ghost. 

His conversion w^as as distinctly marked as had been his self-right- 
eousness ; his mouth was filled with praise ; and now the bright colored 
boy is a Christian, to the delight of his numerous friends : and the 



Feancis Burns. 379 

immediate exercise of his gifts in public were listened to with wonder 
and joy by the whole community. 

Two years slip by ; he is now seventeen ; still at school, but at 
work on the farm in the vacations. He is a growing Christian ; he 
has a faithful leader in the person of the pious Mrs. Atwood. He is 
baptized and received into the Methodist Episcopal Church, where 
God had prepared for him a wide jSeld of labor. And now the Spirit 
began to move him in the camp ; his public testimonies became more 
methodical and moving ; he evidently possessed gifts of a high order. 
Of colored preachers he had never heard ; no one had opened the 
subject of a divine call to him, and yet, he is impressed that he must 
preach the gospel. 

But all earthly considerations are against him. He is a black man, 
subject to the opposition and prejudices of his race ; he is a mere 
boy ; he is bound until twxnty-one ; four years yet remain of service ; 
he is deficient in the educational qualifications for such a work ; all is 
against him, he cannot go. But wdth this decision he has great 
sorrow and darkness of soul; he stiTiggles on sinking deeper and 
deeper in the slough of despond ; at last he compromises the matter 
with God and his conscience ; if he can be excused until he is of age, 
he will go ; he finds in this comparative quiet. 

But now he must be educated; his thirst for knowledge is a 
torture. He has about exhausted the resources of a common country 
school ; he can " read, write, and cipher," as far as the " rule of 
three," and this was the " u lima tliule " of these young exj^lorers ; but 
our young friend from this point looks out upon the illimitable sea 
beyond with the intense longing of a Columbus gazing uj)on the open 
Atlantic. 

For years it has been his habit to carry a book in his pocket, with 
the addition of a small pocket-dictionary, and his leisure moments 
were employed in reading, with constant reference to his lexicon. 
He is now struck with the fact that for his present necessities here is 
a vast redundancy of words, a much smaller vocabulary answers his 
purpose quite as well. As his eye ran over this bewildering mass of 
terms, he said to himself : " I must know the meaning of more of 
them, these words must have a signification ; somebody must need 
them for the expression of thought; to such they have significance, 



380 Methodist Bishops. 

why not to me?" The vast expanse of science, art, and philosophy, 
spread out before him, he must enter and explore these fields ; he is 
athirst, he must find the spring. 

Let no cynical, color-hating reader say, " O, this was the aspira- 
tion of the white blood — this was the Caucasian element that stirred 
Avithin him." Thank God ! he hadn't any white blood in his veins ; 
no touch of the Saxon ; he was God's type of the black race, and 
was raised up to illustrate the unity of humanity. Look on his manly 
face, black as night, " black, but comely." A noble manhood stirred 
and moved his heart : touched by that Spirit which " brooded the dark 
elements, and order brought from chaos," he felt the impulse and 
followed the dravrings. " Self-made, was he ? " Of course, self-made. 
All men who are made at all, and who make any thing, are self- 
made : they seize the opportunity and employ the instrumentalities. 
You cannot, with all the complicated enginery of educational institu- 
tions, pump true manliness, with force and jpower^ into a passive and 
indifferent soul. One must go out after the treasures of knowledge — 
must " separate himself, and seek and intermeddle with all wisdom," 
in order to find it. On such seeking God smiles, and gratifies the 
desire. 

It is not the college or university that makes the student or the 
man ; these are the helj^s, but the man must make himself. Year by 
year there come throngs from college halls — human forms, polished, 
wi'apped in tissue-paper, bound, corded, stamped with the makers 
trade-mark, a diploma of strange words signifying nothing, not even 
" sound and fury," put on the car of transportation, and dumped into 
eternity, that's all. " Self-made I " Of course this child of misfortune 
will be self-made. He is bursting through the hard, superincumbent 
mass of prejudice and poverty, and all the dehns which human 
diabolism could heap upon a race. He is struggling to free himseK, 
like Milton's coming lion, — 

"Now half appeared 
The tawny lion, pawing to get free 
His hinder parts ; then springs as broke from bonds, 
And, rampant, sliakes his brindled mane." 

E very thing seemed against young Burns but God, and how wonder- 
fully He cleared his way ! 



Francis Burns. 381 

There is a high school at Lexington Heights, Greene County, 
under the tutorship of William M'Lauren, and he is advised by his 
spiritual guide, Rev. D. Terry, to apply for admission to its classic 
halls. It seemed the wildest and most absurd attempt — no colored 
student had ever been admitted to a high school or academy in the 
country — a black man in an aristocratic white high school ? Impossi- 
ble ! He can hardly hope for success in his application. But Francis 
believed in God. He might secure his admission, and if he should 
gain admission it would be next to heaven. He will, instead of a 
direct application to the trustees, first apjDly at head-quarters; the 
school belongs to his Father — He will not reject his application. He 
goes to his closet, talks with his best friend about it, reminds him of 
the covenant between them, of his wants and unfitness for his pros- 
pective life work, and comes out with an assurance of success. He 
makes his application in person. His modesty, his earnestness, his 
reputation, his good character, so long maintained in the community, 
favorably impress the gentlemanly principal, and he is admitted ; the 
first instance of the kind on record on this continent. Heretofore a 
colored man who desired an education must go to Europe in order to 
pursue a course of study on terms of equality with whites. There 
stands, in one corner of my parlor, a guitar which the writer pur- 
chased of a fine looking young colored man, in 1849, who wished to 
raise funds to reach England that he might enter a medical school, as 
all doors were closed against him in the United States. 

Not one word was uttered against our young hero in or out of the 
school ; nay, he was treated with marked respect by both pupils and 
teachers. Fie won their confidence and love by his gentleness, his 
Christian deportment, and his application and remarkable proficiency 
in his studies. 

He does not relax in his religious zeal ; he grows in grace, and 
seeks and finds a full consecration to God, and proves in his deep 
experience, that the " blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." 
He lives in a new world, there is to him a " new heaven and a new 
earth." " The joy of the Lord is his strength." 

He now begins to " hold meetings " in the neighboring school- 
houses, and the delighted brethren hear with surprise his clear and 
persuasive exhortations ; and the conviction is strengthened that he is 



382 Methodist Bishops. 

indeed a " chosen vessel unto the Lord ;" and in this conviction, judg- 
ing him to be a suitable person, as he has clearly " gifts, grace, and 
usefulness," the Church adds her outward to the Spirit's inward call 
to the ministry of the word. 

After a quarterly meeting, held on the Windham Circuit, he was 
given a license as local preacher, now about twenty years of age. He 
is not idle, his license was no mere compliment, but authority by the 
Church to call sinners to repentance, and he enters every open door, 
aided and encouraged by the circuit preachers. 

But now appears another remarkable plienomenon in the career of 
tliis man. He is engaged to teach the common school in his own 
neighborhood — the first colored teacher of white youth in the land. 
His success was marked. He had the confidence of the entire com- 
munity. By his consistent Christian life and affectionate, kindly dis- 
j)Osition, he had endeared himself to all the people. He had honored 
God, and now God gives him favor with the people. 

It is now 1830, Mr. Burns is twenty-one years of age. A great 
and wide-spread interest is awakened for Africa, whose degraded 
millions appealed to the American Churches for help. Her stolen 
children had enriched our land by their unpaid toil ; we can do no 
less than to send the gospel back to them. At once men volunteered 
to go. Cox, "Wright, and others went out to suffer and to die ; and one 
after another they fell, and their dust awaits the resurrection call in the 
cemetery at Monrovia. It was soon demonstrated that white men can- 
not hve in Africa, and that if the work is prosecuted at all it must be by 
colored men, or such as have been acclimated in hot, malarial climates. 
But the dying Cox had struck the key-note of the enterprise in his 
last utterance : " Though thousands fall, let not Africa.be given up." 

Rev. David Terry traveled the Windham Circuit, which was the 
residence of Mr. Burns. He had noticed the young colored man in 
the congregation, was impressed wdth his manly bearing, and heard 
with much interest his testimony in a class-meeting after the public 
service. He sought and obtained an interview with him, learned the 
main facts in his history, and advised him* to turn his attention to 
theological reading, with such studies as would fit him for ministerial 
work among his own people here or in Africa ; and at the same time 
Burns gave him an order for a copy of Clarke's Commentary. 



Fkancis Burns. 383 

In 1833 the N^ew York Annual Conference met in Pouglikeepsie, 
and the young colored man was introduced to Bishop Hedding, who, 
after a brief examination, was satisfied that he was a laborer specially 
prepared for the new field in Africa. He was struck by the marks 
of divine providence in his history. Like his^ great prototype, he was 
providentially raised up and fitted for a leader of his people. His 
lowly birth, his casting out by his parents under the law of poverty, 
more flexible than the law of Pharoah ; his rescue and nursing by a 
greater than the daughter of the Egyptian king, that " elect lady," 
Mrs. Atwood ; his sojourn in his Midian, keeping the flocks of his 
benefactor ; the burning bush, the white high school, which gave him 
authority by fitting him for his work ; and now his call to go and 
lead his people out of their long servitude, are all interesting coinci- 
dences, fanciful only to the unbelieving. 

But such a man is w^anted just at this time for a special work, and 
he is found in the "hill country" of E"ew York, where he has been 
in preparation for two decades of years, and now comes to the front 
at the call of circumstances. If a peculiarly shaped stone is wanted 
in the erection of a building, and one is found among the material 
which fits the place, and no where else, it is fair to infer it was 
designed for it. You may call it chance, we call it divine providence, 
watching his w^ork and providing for exigencies. 

The year following the interview with Bishop Hedding a man 
arrived in this country from the West Indies, who had been long in 
the missionary work among the blacks in those islands. He was at 
once engaged to go to Liberia to superintend our mission work; and 
so this man, Bev. John Seys, became the Aaron of our Moses, and our 
Albany waif, the student, the scholar, the pious and devoted young 
local preacher, is engaged to accompany him to that distant and peril- 
ous field of toil. 

Light now flashes on all his dark past, and God says to him, " For 
this same purpose have I raised thee up." This is just the field he 
would have selected had it been left to his choice ; his heart exults in 
the prospect. 

September, 1834, sees them off, the second division of the forlorn 
hope hurled against the citadel of superstition, barbarism, and bestial- 
ity in that land " shadowed with wings " of error. 
23 



384 Methodist Bishops. 

After weary montlis of sailing, the low shores and dark mangrove 
swamps of Africa appear on the horizon. But, alas ! no warm wel- 
come greets them from siiccessfnl predecessors ; they are all in their 
graves ! A handful of converts greet them, but the terrible fever has 
been nearly as fatal to the colored immigrants as to the whites. Color 
.s no certain defense against the fatal malarial fever ; Mr. Burns was 
at once prostrated by the foe, and for two years he suffered constantly- 
returning attacks, but his strong constitution triumphed. 

Pie had entered upon his work as a teacher in Monrovia Seminary, 
and now added to that task the wearing work of an itinerant preacher, 
wdiich he faithfully prosecuted for ten years, when he returned to this 
country for a short rest, and to receive ordination, having •' purchased 
to himself a good degree." He was ordained by Bishop Janes deacon 
and elder in succession. He spent a few months in visiting the 
Churches and presenting the claims of the African mission, and his 
stirring addresses will not be soon forgotten. He then returned to his 
field of labor. He was appointed principal of the Monrovia Confer- 
ence Seminary ; he was editor of '" Africa's Luminary ; " he was pre- 
siding elder of Cape Palmas district, and preacher in charge of Cape 
Palmas station ; and for six years he was appointed president of the 
Liberia Annual Conference. " Who is weak, and I am not weak ? " 
he might well exclaim. Ko mortal man could long stand a strain like 
that. Yet he never complained, nor asked to be relieved. His letters 
to the board of the Missionary Society at [N'ew York were full of 
cheering news and statistical information, so that the managers at 
home knew quite as well the state of the work as though on the spot 
themselves. 

His was a true apostolic life, modeled after that of the great apos- 
tle to the Gentiles. He had laid himself upon the altar without 
reserve, and he would not spare himself. Tlie Church gave him her 
entire confidence, the world held him in profound respect, while the 
friends of the abolition of slavery pointed exultantly to him as a 
demonstration of the capabilities of the African race. 

The General Conference of 1856 took up and discussed the ques- 
tion of a missionary bishop for Africa. It was almost certain death 
for a white man to visit and remain any length of time in that region : 
and then the superintendency by one of their own race would, it 



Francis Burns. 385 

was tlioiiglit, strengtlien the work by throwing them more and more 
upon their own resources. The day was passing when white pastors 
were a necessity to colored Churches. " Throw them upon their own 
manhood," said the advocates of this measure ; " confide in their hon- 
est integrity ; let them feel that their friends and patrons expect them 
to walk alone, and you lift them above a feeling of dependence." And 
so it was voted that the Liberia Annual Conference should elect a 
superintendent for themselves, and the choice was Francis Burns. 
This was in 1858. It was a well-earned honor — none more so. 

But this movement was anomalous, and entirely outside of Meth- 
odist usages and constitutional guarantees. There was no provision in 
the Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church for a diocesan or lim- 
ited episcopate. One is bishop, if properly constituted, of the whole 
Church, of. co-ordinate authority and equality of privilege. He is 
elected by the representatives of all the Annual Conferences in their 
quadrennial convention, and set apart for the work of a superintend- 
ent by the imposition of the hands of the acting bishops ; not raised 
to a higher order, as in other episcopal bodies, but to a distinct office. 
His duty is, in part, '' to travel through the connection at large," says 
the Discipline, and "To oversee the spiritual and temporal business of 
our Church." 

The General Conference authorized the Liberia Annual Confer- 
ence to elect a candidate for the superintendency instead of doing it 
themselves, and so gave their sanction to the election, calling home the 
candidate for ordination. Mr. Burns obeyed the call, came to the 
United States, and Bishops Janes and Baker set him apart to the office 
and work of a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The act 
was performed at the session of the Genesee Annual Conference, held 
in Buffalo, ^N. Y., 1858. It was an occasion of surpassing interest. It 
was the first act of the kind in the history of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. The sable candidate for episcopal honors was a native of New 
York, and was, therefore, at home. Crowds were gathered at the seat 
of the Conference, eager to see the man of whom they had heard so 
much, and to witness the ceremony. Mr. Burns had frequently 
preached since his return with great power, and his missionary addresses 
had stirred the hearts of the people as they had seldom been moved. 
^' He had the polished manners of a gentleman," says an eye witness, 



386 Methodist Bishops. 

" with great sweetness of disposition, and retiring and attractive mod- 
esty, a highlj cultivated mind, stored with choice knowledge, which 
made his company exceedingly interesting." And now, when this 
man knelt at the chancel, and the hands of the officiating bishops and 
elders were laid npon his head, and in the hnsh of that vast assembly, 
the solemn words were heard, " Receive the Holy Ghost for the office 
and work of a bishop in the Church of God now committed unto thee 
by the imposition of our hands, in the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost ! " there was not a dry eye in the house. 
It was a great event — the veil had begun to rend, the sun went forward 
many degrees on the dial-plate of humanity ; Africa was redeemed. 

And, now the little child of poverty, who was "given away" by his 
parents and adopted by strangers, is a bishop in the Church of God. 
"With all the irregularities attending his election, he bears the title, 
and has earned the honor. If deep and uniform piety, close appli- 
cation to study, profound and ripe scholarship, rare devotion to his 
work as a servant of God, with marked success, are essential qualifica- 
tions for the office of a bishop, then was Francis Burns worthy of 
the office of an overseer in the Church of God, while the undivided 
ballots of his brethren, the voice of the entire Church, and the solemn 
imposition of episcopal hands, surely confirm that claim ; and he might 
go a step farther, and appeal to a higher test, and say, "Are they 
[apostles ?] so am I. Are they ministers of Christ ? I am more : in 
labors more abundant ... in journeyings often, in perils of waters, 
in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by 
the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness ... in 
weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in 
fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are 
without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all " Africa ! 

The solution of this vexed question of the ecclesiastical legality of 
Bishop Burns's ordination, which at the time created so much excite- 
ment and drew out so much discussion is, that" he was a black man, 
and the time was 1858-'59. It would never do to have a black 
bishop traveling at large through the land, presiding at Annual Con- 
ferences, stationing white preachers, and ordaining them ; hence he 
must be styled a " missionary bishop ! " But point out in the Disci- 
pline, as it then stood^ your authority for such an office. Show in the 



Francis Burns. 387 

ordination service the distinction. Do we make the same distinction 
in our Scandinavian, German, or Chinese work ? If the bishop who 
goes to superintend the Liberia Conference is a missionary bishop, 
so is he who visits Germany and China and tlie East Indies a mission- 
ary bishop for the time, but when the term of such service expires he 
takes his place among his peers. And so if the acts af election and 
ordination give and secure to these officers of the Church this equality, 
Anthony Burns, when here, was among his peers ; and had he, on his 
final return to this country, in 1863, claimed all the rights, privileges, 
and powers of a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in the 
absence of all disciplinary limitations and restrictions, there is not a 
legal tribunal in the land but would have granted the claim. But 
those were days when slavery ruled Church and State, and the time 
had not yet- arrived when a white bishop could dine and take an airing 
in the carriage of a respectable colored dentist and family without pro- 
ducing an earthquake, and ending this mundane conflict. 

Our new bishop gave himself brief repose, but at once sailed for 
his distant field of labor, where he threw himself again into his loved 
work with a zeal which knew^ no abatement, and a heart that never 
grew cold ; he would not spare himself. He had the care of the 
schools, of the printing press, and of the Churches and ministers ; he 
must be every- where in the supervision of these interests, and this 
not for a few weeks, as in the case of a visiting bishop, and then off 
for home, but this strain was unremitting ; the close of the year only 
introducing another of increasing care as the good work spread. And 
thus passed four years of additional toil. But the bow which had 
retained its strength for thirty years began to give way, and to lose its 
elasticity. His long exposure to that terrible climate, the frequent 
attacks of malarial fever he had suffered, and his herculean labors, had 
about exhausted a constitution not naturally strong, and he broke 
down. His physician commanded instant cessation from labor, and 
a return to the States. 

He reached his native land in the darkest days of our struggle with 
the proud foe of his race. He was intensely excited. The land trem- 
bled undei the tread of armed hosts, and he must have experienced a 
rare delight in seeing thousands, of his own race marching to the field 
under the Stars and Stripes. But a greater joy awaited this toil-worn 



388 Methodist Bishops. 

son of oppressed Africa. On tlie second day of September, 1862, tlie 
nation was startled bj the famous Proclamation of Emancipation, issued 
by President Lincoln, and on January 1, 1863, slavery ceased to exist 
in the United States. Some three months after that event Bishop 
Burns arrived in Baltimore, but only to die. His work was done ; 
nature failed to rally her exhausted powers ; and on the 18th of Aj^ril, 
1863, he quietly fell asleep in Jesus. 

Bishop Francis Burns was a remarkable man in talent, attainments, 
piety, and self-sacrifice. Our excellent Bishop Janes sums up all in a 
letter kindly furnished to the writer in which he says : ''I had a good 
deal of correspondence with him, and became very much attached to 
him. I esteemed him very highly as a minister of deep piety, refine- 
ment, general intelligence, mental force, and devotion to his work. 
The sermon which he j^reached before the Genesee Conference, at the 
time of his ordination as bishop, would have been creditable to any of 
our bishops." 

Bishop Burns was married after his elevation to the ej^iscopate, and 
as this event was as strongly marked by a mysterious over-ruling Provi- 
dence as his own remarkable career, it deserves, and shall have, a sepa- 
rate and special notice. 

Our heroic bishop was in no haste to wed, believing that He who 
said, " It is not good for man to be alone," would in due time, without 
the aid of the Darwinian dogma of " natural selection," bring to him 
the other haK of the Adam thus left alone. He did not, as soon as 
he entered the Christian ministry, begin to peer about in search of a 
wife, and hence he avoided embarrassing engagements, and no morsel 
was furnished to the tooth of slander. He waited for her to come. 
" When I want a wife I wiU not call in the aid of that class of mis- 
chief-makers, the match-makers ; I believe the God who has guided 
me through all these years, and whom I serve, will provide one," he 
said quietly to himself. Alone he toiled on in the burning air of 
Africa for twenty-five years, gathering souls into the fold of Christ. 
]S'o breath of calumny rested upon him, no act of indiscretion marred 
the beauty of his life, but still there was found no ''helpmeet for him." 

But the same wise and gracious Providence which had always 
guided his affairs was with him still, and had been for all these years 
of labor and sacrifice, preparing for him a true helper. 



Francis Burns. 389 

Just about the time of his first visit to Africa a httle girl of mixed 
blood, at the age of three years, was left an orphan, and thrown upon 
the charities of the w^orld ; her name was Lucinda J. Harvard, a native 
of the State of Connecticut, but in what town born we do not know. 
A kind-hearted man by the name of Warren Humj)hrey, and his pious 
wife, adopted the little outcast. In this kind family she was a cherished 
pet for seven years, when Mrs. Humphrey died. To the poor child 
this was a great loss. " It was," says Mrs. Dr. Raymond, from whom 
w^e have derived these facts, " the first great affliction of her life." In 
this family she toiled on in household labor until nearly twenty years 
of age, without remuneration, saving only food and clothing. She 
then, being of age, went into another family at stipulated wages of one 
dollar and a half per week. She was intent on securing an education 
which should fit her for teaching. In the course of two years she had 
saved of her small wages fifty dollars, with which she started for Wil- 
braham Seminary, then under charge of Rev. Minor Raymond, D.D. 
She at once entered upon her course of study, which she diligently and 
successfully prosecuted for some three years, a part of her expenses 
being paid by the Missionary Society, and in part by her own labor in 
the family of the principal. Dr. Raymond. Her heart was drawn 
toward Liberia as her field of labor. She sailed for Africa in the same 
ship which bore back to his field of toil the newly ordained Bishop 
Burns. On this long voyage they, of necessity, formed intimate 
acquaintance with each other, which grew into strong mutual attach- 
ment. They then entered into a matrimonial engagement. She taught 
for a season at White Plains Seminary, Liberia, and there they were 
married January 5, 1859. 

They at once removed to Monrovia, the residence of the bishop, 
and took possession of the episcopal palace I Let not the reader smile 
incredulously at this. You shall have a picture of this palatial resi- 
dence drawn by her own hand : '' It was," she writes, " three stories 
in height, built of wood, with two rooms to each story, old and leaky ; 
neither ceiled, plastered, nor papered — simply like a barn." 

She bore no children, but adopted a number of poor outcasts. We 
cannot better describe her life in Africa than is done by her own pen 
in a letter to that " elect " lady, Mrs. Raymond, who has kindly fur- 
nished a copy for information, and in answer to the question, " Was she 



390 Methodist Bishops. 

[the bishop's wife] a helpmeet ? " " The two eldest [adopted] daugh- 
ters are married, so there are but five children at home, four girls, and 
a boy three years old, Mr. Burns, myself, and the children are all 
that sit at table daily. I have no hired woman constantly, but get one 
by the day as I need. As soon as it is light we are up. Mr. B. goes 
to his study, which is in another house, as there is no spare room in 
this. Some of us j)repare the breakfast, while others make the chil- 
dren's beds, do the sw^eeping, and so forth. At eight o'clock Mr. B. 
comes hom -5, when we have prayers and breakfast. Then the children 
go to school. We dine at two, but get no supper. Through the day 
I am attending to my housework, making and mending clothes for old 
and young, boys and girls, or visiting the sick and poor — giving this 
poor w^oman and that orphan child something to eat, drink, or wear. 
And O, there is so much of this to do ! N^ot a day passes but some 
one is at the door begging, and, of course, I must satisfy myself that 
it is a worthy and needy case." 

Mrs. B. writes, " Although the white and negro races were equally 
represented in her blood, and she herself was quite dark, yet she natu- 
rally shrank from contact with colored people, as all her associations 
had been w^th white people. Yet she writes : ' I recollect how I used 
to feel about talking and praying with the natives ; yet all I regret 
about that is, that I do not have more of it to do.' " 

When the worn and dying bishop came to this country with the 
hope of improving his health she accompanied him, nursed and com- 
forted him in his last hours, and closed his eyes -in their final sleep: 
then, taking his remains with her, returned over the wide waste of 
waters to her desolate home. She kept her family together and also 
taught a school. But the climate had broken her robust frame, and she 
soon sank under her increased burdens, and is laid by the side of her 
noble husband under the palms of the land they both loved to the death. 

" They were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in death they 
were not divided." 






Jlr7ur~ex^x.^t 



Davis Wasgatt Clark. 



BY REV. DANIEL CURKY, D.D. 



1VTEAELY all of the chief men of American Methodism have 
JL^ been of the class popularly styled "self-made." It may be 
doubted, however, whether that designation truthfully applies to any 
man ; for .every one is more or less shaped by his conditions. Or if 
the use of sucli conditions by the individual is especially referred to 
by that term, then all who usually succeed are self-made. There is, 
however, a_sense in which that form of expression may be taken that 
is not only true, but also eminently suggestive and worthy of attention. 
These men were chiefly from the middle grades of society : sons of 
plain and comparatively poor and only moderately educated parents, 
and were accustomed from childhood to frugal living, to labor, and 
to rely largely upon their own efforts for their present livelihood, 
and any possible higher attainments in the future. And these things, 
no doubt, contributed largely to their success in life ; and the habits 
of industry imposed by necessity, coupled with the moral and religious 
influences of their Christian homes, made them such as they now 
appear — giants in manly virtues and heroes in the service of their 
God and of his people. 

Of this goodly company of Christian worthies he of whom we 
now write was one, and by no means the least. Davis Wasgatt 
Clark was descended on the side of both parents from a good Massa- 
chusetts stock. His ancestors on both sides had in the generations 
before him removed into the Province of Maine, then an integral 
part of the State of Massachusetts, and settled in the new country 
near the sea-coast, to the eastward of the southern extremity of the 
province. The island of Mount Desert, so named from its character 
by the early French colony that first occupied this territory, lies just 
off the mainland, and upon this the grandparents of our subject — 
both paternal and maternal — made their homes. Here Davis Wasgatt, 
his maternal grandfather, whose honored name he has made still more 



394 Methodist Bishops. 

honorable, after having served his country in the army during the 
wliole period of the war of the Kevohition, resided for more than 
three score years, chosen by his townsmen to the principal places in 
tlieir gift, both civil and ecclesiastical. Here, too, resided' John Clark, 
a young farmer of good character, who wooed and won the hand of 
Sarah AYasgatt, and of the union so formed came, as their oldest 
son, the subject of this sketch. Tlie traveler of these later times 
who may explore the interior of that island will find in the shel- 
tered inland nook known as Beach Hill Yalley a grave-yard, and 
among the tombstones two bearing, respectively, the names of John 
Clark and Sarah Clark. Not far off is the site, now houseless, u2:>on 
which stood the modest dwelling in which, on the 25th day of 
February, 1812, was born he whom the great world has come to 
know as Davis Wasgatt Clark, D.D., bishop of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church. 

The remote island home into which this future celebrity was born 
could offer him but scanty advantages beyond those of the household 
itself. By reason of its isolation and comjDarative poverty, it possessed 
but few of the advantages of advanced civilization. Its school, 
though kept in existence, afforded only the most limited primary 
instruction. A Congregational Church was established and main- 
tained in the neighborhood, of which the venerable Wasgatt was for 
two generations an office-bearer ; but the current of its religious life 
had become very feeble, and consequently its j)Ower was quite insuf- 
ficient to restrain and renew the uncultured children of the forests 
and the sea who made up the population of the island. But there 
were better things in reserve for them. In the year 1815 a Free-will 
Baptist preacher visited the island as an evangelist, preaching in 
private houses, and wherever he could obtain access to the people. 
A remarkable religious awakening followed, and among the converts 
were John and Sarah Clark. The stranger evangelist presently de- 
parted, leaving his converts to the care of others, and many of them 
found their way into the only Church on the island. A religious 
revolution now took place in the household of which our subject was 
a child of scarcely four years old. The family altar was set up, and 
the daily oblation of prayer and praise was offered, and in all its 
affairs it was manifested that salvation had come to that house. With 



Davis Wasgatt Clark. 395 

a child's quickness to perceive, and sympathy to feel, the little boy 
took notice of these things, and felt their awe-inspiring expressiveness. 
The seed thus sown became abundantly fruitful in after life. But there 
arose an insuperable obstacle in the way of both the parents of our sub- 
ject coming into the fellowship of the Congregational Church. It was 
required of all who sought to unite with that Church that they should 
accept and believe all its doctrines, including the extreme tenets of 
Calvinism, which neither of them could do. They, therefore, re- 
mained without formal Church fellowship, but kindled and kept alive 
the fires of their devotions upon their own domestic altar. 

Here in the loneliness of that island home childhood grew into 
youth, and the unfolding intellect asked for a wider Held, and the 
young heart struggled for larger sympathies. His home afforded 
these only to a very limited extent. He soon attained to all the 
learning that the local school could give him ; he devoured with very 
little discrimination, because there was very little room for choice, all 
the books that fell within his reach, and through them caught 
glimpses of the great outside world. He mingled with and listened 
to the stories of the sailors and fishermen who had been out upon the 
great deep, and his rising ambition prompted him to be a sailor. 
But Crod had other work for him ; and while the youth was thus 
marking out for himself another way of life than that designed by 
Providence, an event occurred which changed forever the course of 
his life. 

In 1828, while our subject w^as in his seventeenth year. Mount 
Desert was first visited by a Methodist preacher, with the design to 
permanently occupy it. Rev. David Stimson was then in charge of 
Penobscot Circuit, with Rufus C. Bailey for colleague. The latter 
was a young man, and was sent over to the hitherto un visited island, if 
it might be, to do something there for God and Methodism. He soon 
found his way to the island dell, under the shadow of Beach Hill, and 
preached Christ and a free and impartial gospel to the people. More 
than ten years had passed, during which some of those w^ho received 
the word of God as preached by the stranger evangelist had earnestly 
waited the advent of another who should, in like manner, tell them 
of God's free grace. These were found a people prepared to receive 
the coming messenger of salvation. Among the names of the mem- 



396 Methodist Bishops. 

bers of the class first formed were those of Sarah Clark, and her son 
Davis W. Clark. And this record was, especially to the latter, sig- 
nificant of mnch more than appeared upon the surface. He had be- 
come the subject of a profound moral and religious transformation — • 
was born again. This raised him into a new life, with broader, deeper, 
and more spiritual views than he had before entertained ; and he 
entered at once upon a new career, the end of which he had but little 
understood, but into which he consented to be led by the divine 
Spirit to whose guidance he had submitted himself. 

Two or three years more were passed at the paternal home, not 
idly, however, nor unprofitably, either for himself or others ; though 
still he saw not how the pillar of the divine Providence would lead 
him out into the wider activities for which his heart was burning. He 
felt his lack of the needed mental preparation for the work to which 
his heart aspired, but saw not the way to obtain it. He had heard of 
schools and institutions where young men were prepared for their high 
career in life, but they appeared to be as utterly inaccessible to him as 
if they were in another world. They seemed to come nearer to him, 
however, when he heard of such institutions patronized and controlled 
by his own Church, and his desires grew with the faintest hope of 
their being gratified. The Maine TTesleyan Seminary had^ been 
founded a few years before, with a manual labor department, by 
which it was too fondly hoped that young men would be able to 
largely meet their expenses by devoting a part of their time to 
manual labor. This prospect decided his course, and in the spring 
of 1831 young Clark, at the age of nineteen, left his father's house 
and proceeded to Readfield, the seat of the seminary, and began 
his student life. His father reluctantly parted with his boy, already 
his chief dependence in all his farm work, but sent him out with 
all he had to give — his blessing. His services as a school-teacher in 
his own neighborhood had gained for him a small sum of money, 
and with that, and a strong heart, he went forth. He went to the 
seminary to obtain learning, but with only the most indefinite no- 
tions as to what all that signified — what he was to learn, to what 
extent he would proceed, or how the necessary expenses should be 
met. But time and events resolved all these. He continued at the 
seminary (with long absences, chiefly occupied with school-teaching) 



Davis Wasgatt Clark. 397 

for about three years ; and in 1834 lie entered tlie Wcslejan Uni- 
vercity at a somewhat advanced stage of its course of studies, and 
two years Later he left it, bearing with him the diploma of a Bach- 
elor of Arts. 

His career in college seems not to have excited any very special 
attention from his instructors or others. His class-standing was 
always respectable, but not the highest, as it could not be expected 
that it should, since he usually had one or two more studies than 
properly belonged to his class. He was, however, graduated with 
honor, and the education he had obtained was to a good degree com- 
plete in both its extent and his mastery of the matters taken in 
hand. 

But though released from the exactions of student life, he was 
not at liberty to pause and enjoy the much-needed leisure so appro- 
priate to such a time. Only a few weeks later he entered upon his 
duties as teacher of mathematics at Amenia Seminary, Dutchess 
County, ]^. Y. Soon afterward he was, licensed to preach, so that 
now double responsibilities were laid upon him. That seminary had 
then been in operation only about two years. Rev. (now Dr.) C. 
K. True was its first principal, who retired at the end of one year, 
and Rev. F. Merrick, (afterward president of Ohio Wesley an Uni- 
versity,) was now at its head. Under his able and skillful manage- 
ment, and after him under that of his not less able successor, the 
institution grew up to a high degree of pros]3erity, and became a 
great blessing to a multitude of young persons of both sexes, who 
availed themselves of the advantages that it offered. 

About two years later two marked events occurred in Mr. Clark's 
affairs. On the 25th of July, 1838, he was united in marriage witli 
Miss Mary J. Redman, daughter of Jesse and Frances Redman, of 
Trenton, N. J. Their acquaintance had begun at the seminary, and 
was extended and consummated in marriage, at the home of her 
who now became his bride. There is evidence, that, while Mr. Clark 
was not without the- sentiment common to young persons in such 
cases, he also entered upon the state of matrimony with sincere and 
deep religious feelings. Life had ever been with him too intensely 
real to be now given up to sentimentality. 

" Thus far," he wrote on the occasion of his marriage, '' the 



398 METHODibT Bishops. 

Lord lias led me on, and still lie continues to bless and prosper me. 
O, tliat we may continue to walk in all the commandments and 
ordinances of the Lord blameless.'- 

The other event referred to was his election, by the trustees of 
the seminary, to succeed the late principal, Mr. Merrick, who at -that 
time retired from the position he had so ably and successfully 
filled. The election was made unanimously, and accompanied with 
a strongly-expressed wish that he should accept the position. And 
the events more than justified the wisdom of the selection. He 
entered upon his duties resolved to make the institution something 
more than a school for secular learning. '' These schools," he wrote, 
" must be conducted on religious principles, and must have teachers of 
genuine piety, and not merely formally reKgious." How fully and 
successfully he reduced this resolve to practice is shown by the history 
of the seminary while under his superintendency. 

The whole term of Mr. Clark's connection with Ameiiia Seminary 
was seven years ; the first two as an assistant, having charge of the 
department of mathematics, and the subsequent five years as principal 
and instructor in mental and moral philosophy and English literature. 
The government of the institution was entirely in his hands, with only 
a few general instructions from the board of trustees, and yet with a 
large body of pupils of both sexes, and many of them of adult age, 
there were very few occasions for discipline during the Avliole term of 
his administration. The attendance of pupils was large during the 
whole time, many of them drawn by the reputation of the institution 
from remote parts of the country. The grade of instruction was high, 
even for an academy, and many of its older boys and young men were 
pursuing the studies required before entering college. Of those who 
then and there pursued their preparatory studies, a considerable num- 
ber have achieved a good reput-ation among scholars. 

As an educator having the oversight of a body of young persons, 
Mr. Clark recognized his relations as devolving upon him the most 
sacred responsibilities in respect to the religious training of his pupils. 
The seminary was, by the design of its founders and official guardians, 
specifically a Methodist institution. Mr. Clark sought also to make it 
eminently an evangelical agency. There were regular services on Sab- 
bath in the seminary chapel, at which the principal usually officiated. 



Davis Wasgatt Clark. 390 

A high state of spiritual prosperity prevailed during most of the 
time of his presidency over the institution, with extensive revivals 
during most of the terms ; and because he took charge of these exer- 
cises, and was himself at the head of all the religious proceedings, any 
tendency to extravagance or fanaticism was entirely avoided. 

In 1839, a year after their marriage, Mr. Clark and his young wife 
made a journey to the home of his childhood. A little more than 
eight years before he had gone out from that home, and by repeated 
removes he had gone farther and farther away, and with the lapse of 
years his returns had become less and less frequent. Evidently this 
enforced separation occasioned him real sorrow. His father's family 
was eminently a private one, and he seldom spoke of it except in the 
most delicate manner, and yet his heart dwelt in it with an affection 
that neither^ distance nor time could efface. His parents still survived, 
and his brother and sisters were yet about them, and his venerable 
maternal grandfather, whose honored name he bore, now a patriarcli of 
ninety, still lingered with his descendants. Into that sacred seclusion 
the young minister, bringing with him his youthful bride, now came 
to look once again upon the scenes of his childhood, and to bless and 
be blessed among those who held his earliest love ! His mother, espe- 
cially, with the intuitions of a mother, now looked with a kind of pro- 
phetic awe upon this son of her solicitudes and hopes, and as he went 
forth again, followed him with her prayers and benedictions into that 
great world into which she saw him departing, led by a propitious 
providence. 

In his new department of instruction he was brought into intimate 
contact with the more advanced minds of his pupils, and accordingly 
his own mind was drawn into a higher range of contemplation. His 
mental tendencies led him to take broad and deep views of things, and 
his literary tastes were gratified and strengthed by the studies to which 
he was called. And here, as through all his after life, he did more 
than to simply compass the routine of his duties. He extended his 
studies over the whole field in which he was called to labor, and he 
noted down for the use of others the matured result of his studies. 
As the great purpose of his teaching was to quicken and fashion the 
minds of his pupils after his own elevated ideal, and apprehending 
tha,t labor and self -discipline were the necessary means to that end, he 



400 Methodist Bishops. 

made the art of self-culture and discipline a subject of special study. 
His studies and meditations upon this su.bject at length took form in a 
^•'ell-digested treatise on " Mental Discipline," which was published by 
him in 1847, the earliest of his literary productions in the form of a 
volume. 

But while thus earnestly devoting his mind and heart to the work 
immediately in hand, he was consciously drawn toward another and. 
still more sacred calling. He had gone forth from the home of his 
childhood with the Christian ministry as the great objective point 
toward which his heart was leading him. That point was, indeed, 
apparently a great way off, and the path by which it was to be reached 
was far from being plain to his vision ; but he never lost sight of his 
object, nor failed to hope that it would be attained. To preach the 
gospel, and to serve as the religious guide and instructor of the people, 
he recognized as his paramount duty and his highest and most sacred, 
calling. He therefore submitted, somewhat restively, to the restraints 
laid upon him by pecuniary obligation incurred in prosecuting his 
educational career, which induced him to consider and to condemn the 
practice of his Church in wholly failing to make provision for the 
assistance of young men preparing for the ministry of the gospel. His 
first essays as a writer for the press were accordingly directed to that 
subject, pleading that provisions should be made by which young men, 
duly approved, should be brought forward by the Church and aided in 
procuring the required preparation for the work of the ministry. His 
convictions respecting this matter were evidently quickened, and his 
feelings intensified, by his own experiences ; but beyond any thing per- 
sonal in the relations of the subject, the breadth and fitness of the 
views expressed, and the manner of their statement, indicate the men- 
tal and literary growth to which their writer had already attained. 
The mind of the, Church at that time was passing forward to more 
adequate views of the utility and necessity of a thoroughly educated 
ministry ; and while wise and pious men saw dangers in the changes 
proposed, others, their equals in both wisdom and devotion, saw in 
these things the guiding hand of Providence pointing out to his peo- 
ple the way in which they should go forward. Time and events have 
indicated the wisdom of the proposed changes of administrative policy 
in the Methodist Episcopal Church as to education for the ministry, 



Davis Wasgatt Clark. 401 

in relation to wliicli changes the name of D. W. Clark aeservedlj 
stands forth as a leader of the advancing column. 

While thus engaged in liis labors and studies at tlie seminary, 
Mr. Clark was also pursuing an extensive course of reading in the- 
ology and general literature ; and whatever he read he set down in 
regular and systematic order. He, therefore, became, almost without 
puriDosing it, a reviewer. He accordingly prepared a number of 
elaborate papers, as studies from his library and lecture room, which 
were printed in the " Methodist Quarterly Review." For more than 
ten years, beginning soon after 184:0, and continuing till he entered 
upon the more engrossing duties of an official editorship, he was a 
not infrequent contributor to that periodical ; and these papers, so 
published, secured for him a valuable reputation as an able thinker 
and a scholarly writer. There was about these productions a robust- 
ness of thought and manliness of utterance that pleased more than 
the finest rhetoric or poetic embellishments, though these qualities 
were not altogether wanting. 

In the early part of the year 1843, after a residence of nearly seven 
years at Amenia, Mr. Clark determined to resign his place in the 
Seminary, and to enter upon the regular work of the ministry. His 
administration, it was universally confessed, had been eminently suc- 
cessful. In the address delivered among the closing exercises of his 
administration, reviewing his work, it was stated that more than a 
thousand young persons had come under his instructions ; that of these 
more than eighty had entered upon a course of preparation for some 
one of the learned professions ; and that about thirty had devoted them- 
selves to the sacred calling of the Christian ministry. More than two 
hundred had been converted during that time — a fact of the highest 
interest of all. He thus terminated his first great public responsibility, 
which doubtless was, as to himself, the formation and fixing of his 
character, and his preparation for the still more conspicuous places to 
w^hich he ascended. 

The ISTew York Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
held its session for the year 1843 in the city of E"ew York, com- 
mencing on the lYth of May. At that session Mr. Clark, having 
been duly recommended by the Church at Amenia, appeared as a can- 
didate for the traveling connection, and was admitted on trial. His 
24 



402 . Methodist Bishops. 

first appointment was to Winsted, in the State of Connecticut. At 
that time the snbject of slavery was producing no little agitation in 
the Church, and especially within the E'ew England States. The 
j^ew York Conference, however, as a body, held strongly to the con- 
servative side of the question, seeking to repress all attempts at 
agitation, and even censuring any of its own members that dared to 
declare openly against the morality or even the policy of slave-holding. 
With this controversy, in its partisan aspects, Mr. Clark had taken 
no part, though personally he most decidedly disliked the accursed 
thing. The Church to which he was now appointed was most thor- 
oughly and intensely antislavery ; and suspecting that any minister 
that might be sent to them from the Confrence would be in sympa- 
thy with its spirit and opinions rather than theirs, the church authori- 
ties had made no provision for receiving or providing for any. Ac- 
cordino^lv when the new minister came amono^ them, with his familv, 
he was coolly and rather inhospitably received. But however much 
he may have been saddened by the nature of his reception he was 
not disheartened, but went earnestly about his appro23riate work, 
avoiding any controversy or discussions about the subject of slavery. 
Having to preach to his people twice each Sabbath, besides perform- 
ing many other ministerial and pastoral duties among the people, he 
had abundance of labor upon his hands ; and his Church, seeing him 
diligently and faithfully engaged in these, forgot their prejudices 
against him for reasons foreign to himself, and learned to honor him 
for his Christian fidelity and ministerial ability. Before he left the 
place he was confessed to be a good enough " abolitionist " for them. 
He received a salary of $350 a year, with a modest dwelling, for the 
two years of his pastorate at Winsted ; and with this modest income 
he was content, because it enabled him and his family to live com- 
fortably and respectably. His two years' service at this first appoint- 
ment was long remembered by those whom he served with peculiar 
satisfaction. 

Having been two years at Winsted, the law of the Methodist 
itineracy required his removal to another place ; he, therefore, closed 
up his work at that place in April, 1845, and repaired to the session of 
the Conference. His two years' service on trial having proved satis- 
factory, he was admitted to full membership in the body, and clothed 



Davis Wasgatt Clark. 403 

witli the full powers of tlie eldership. His next appointment was 
Salisbury, whose Methodist Episcopal Church was among the oldest 
of that denomination in all that part of the country, and of very 
considerable financial strength and social standing. The congregation 
w^as large and intelligent, but not especially devout. It was, in addi- 
tion to the ordinary causes of spiritual decline, suffering from the 
prevalence of the " Millerite " delusion, and a terrible reaction had 
followed the former fanaticism, by which many had been alienated 
in spirit, and some had quite made shipwreck of their faith. But 
without complainings or confessed discouragement he labored dili- 
gently for the building up of the desolation, and under the divine 
blessing his labors proved abundantly successful. A spirit of quick- 
ening began to be manifested during the ensuing winter, which at 
length broke out into a deep and extensive revival. For several 
weeks the whole town was pervaded by a wonderful religious influ- 
ence, during which almost every day religious exercises were held in 
the church. A deep religious impression was made upon the whole 
community, and about one hundred persons were converted and added 
to the Church. His two years of service at this Churcli were emi- 
nently successful ; and the zeal and fidelity of their minister w^as 
warmly appreciated by the favored Church and congregation. 

The session of the New York Conference for 1847 was held in the 
city of Isew York. For nearly three years the whole Church had been 
agitated by means of the action of the General Conference of 1844 with 
reference to slavery, and the subsequent separation of the Conferences 
in the Southern States, and the relations which the new organization 
and the Methodist Episcopal Church should bear to each other. As 
these questions involved the subject of the Church's relations to slav- 
ery, Mr. Clark's position could not be an uncertain one. He disap- 
proved the "Plan of Separation," and united with many others to 
demand its abrogation, and rejoiced that the Church had been brought 
to a more pronounced attitude toward slavery and slave holding by its 
members. At that session the delegates to the General Conference to 
be held the next year at Pittsburgh were chosen, and Mr. Clark, though 
merely eligible by time of service, was chosen one of the alternative 
delegates, but was not called upon to serve. His appointment, given 
at the close of the session, was to Sullivan-street Church in the city of 



404 Methodist Bishops. 

'New York — a clmrch of some three liundred members, not rich nor vet 
poor in its temporalities, and in its spiritual affairs not below the 
average Chnrehes of the city. After two years he was removed to 
Yestry-street Church, where he also continued two years. At neither 
of these Churches were there during these years any occurrences of a 
character that calls for their special notice. His ability as a preacher 
of the gospel, and his zeal and fidelity in his pastoral labors, were 
recognized by all ; and through many succeeding years the fragrance 
of his memory remained with them. 

During these years Mr. Clark was especially active in his studies 
and literary pursuits, for which his residence in the city offered him 
many opportunities and incitements. Several of the papers that ap- 
peared in the " Methodist Quarterly " were prepared during this time. 
He also engaged in the 'business of newspaper correspondence, writing 
statedly, and somewhat frequently, for the " Pittsburgh Christian Ad- 
vocate," during several successive years, and also for the " Northern 
Christian Advocate," published at Auburn, in the State of Xew York. 
As a newspaper writer he possessed some decidedly valuable qualifica- 
tions. He was well-informed, versatile, and ready, and at once vivacious 
and solid — gossipy, but very distinct in his utterances. He also occu- 
pied some of his spare hours in the preparation of two volumes for the 
press. The " Methodist Episcopal Pulpit," a volume of sermons- pre- 
pared by some twenty living ministers expressly for that work ; and 
" Death-bed Scenes," a work of very considerable merit, made up of 
records of the last hours of a large number of noted persons. This 
latter one was not published till some time later. 

During the years of Mr. Clark's residence in New York the 
slavery controversy was especially earnest and bitter; and since in 
such a case none can stand neutral, his opinions and sentiments could 
not be concealed. The passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 
sent a thrill of horror through all the land, and brought home the 
conflict to every one. At first, as always hitherto had been the case, 
there seemed to be an acquiescence in the frequently iniquitous 
determination of Congress : but there were even then, as in the days 
of the old prophet, a remnant who refused to bow to this modern 
Baal. Among these was the subject of these pages. 

In the early part of 1851 the feelings of the people were greatly 



Davis Wasgatt Clark. 405 

moved bj several exceedingly painful cases of slave-catching, the 
result of which upon the already irritated feelings of a large and 
influential share of the people was saddening and provocative of 
resentment. Acting under this influence, the Methodist preachers of 
the city, at their weekly meeting, adopted a series of resolutions 
deprecating the enactment and enforcement of the Fugitive Slave 
Law as contrary to the spirit of the gospel and the explicit words of 
tlie Bible. The paper passed by the meeting w^as offered by Mr. 
Clark as a substitute for another of a more denunciatory and sweep- 
ing character. Owing to the morbidly sensitive condition of the 
public mind this action, apparently so inconsiderable, produced no little 
agitation among both politicians and ecclesiastics. A portion of the 
Methodist laymen, fearing that they might become compromised by 
this action ~of their ministers, publicly and formally protested against 
it, and made haste to record their '' loyalty - ' to the laws of the land, 
and especially to the Fugitive Slave Law. Mr. Clark, because he was 
known as the author of the offending paper, was in a peculiar sense the 
object of the objurgations of the apologists for that piece of patent 
and flagrant wrong imposed by the Congress of the nation ; but he 
quietly and bravely bided his time till the storm passed by. 

In the summer of 1851 Mr. Clark received, entirely unsought by 
himself, from his alma mate?' the honorary degree of Doctor of Di- 
vinity^ the first ever conferred by that institution upon any one of its 
own alumni. The bestowment in this case, was felt to have been well 
and deservedly made. Two years later, when the presidency of that 
University became vacant by the decease of Rev. Dr. Olin, he w^as 
supported by his friends for the succession. At this time, and still 
more at a later date, he was often earnestly requested to accept like 
positions in other literary institutions, all of which were declined. 

At the session of the New York Conference for 1851 Dr. Clark, 
having been stationed in ]^ew York city for four consecutive years, 
was by law no longer eligible to an appointment in that city. He 
was, therefore, sent to one of the Churches at Poughkeepsie, on the 
Hudson. Of his pastorate over that Church, which extended to a 
year and a haK, as it was marked by no remarkable event, so no 
special account need be given. Here he was brought into very inti- 
mate relations with Bishop Hedding, who was then passing the closing 



406 Methodist Bishops. 

years of his eventful life at that place. The good bishop was steadily 
sinking under a complication of diseases, but was richly sustained by 
divine grace, and, as far as they were able, he was kindly cared for by 
the two Methodist pastors of Poughkeepsie, Eev. Dr. Clark, and W. 
H. Ferris, both of whom he seemed to regard with peculiar con- 
fidence and affection, and to the former of them at his decease, in the 
spring of 1852, he committed the difficult and delicate task of pre- 
paring his biography. The work was accordingly undertaken, and 
nearly three years later it was given to the pubhc. Of its character 
and merits but little needs to be said in this place. In respect to its 
illustrious subject it is a faithful and appreciative life-sketch ; and 
with his personal history is naturally interwoven much of the history 
of the Church he so well and faithfully served for half a century. 
Certain matters as to which Bishop Bedding's administration was 
somewhat earnestly criticised in his life-time, the biographer examines 
fearlessly and fairly, sometimes apologetically and sometimes with 
strong approval, but always so as to vindicate the illustrious deceased 
from the slightest suspicion of any lack of purity of motives. The 
work Vv'as issued by the Methodist Book Concern in the year 1855, 
and w^as most favorably received by the Church and the public. It 
forms a valuable contribution to our American Church history, both 
denominational and general. 

At the General Conference held in Boston, in May, 1852, Bev. 
William C. Larrabee, of Indiana, was elected editor of the "Ladies' 
Bepository " at Cincinnati, to succeed Dr. B. F. Teffts, who had con- 
ducted that publication for nearly six years j^revious to that time. But 
before fully entering upon his editorial duties, Mr. Larrabee, having 
been appointed to a responsible position in his own State, declined the 
former place. To the vacancy thus created Dr. Clark was now chosen 
by those charged with that duty, and after due deliberation, being 
strongly urged to do so by the publishers, he accepted the appointment. 
That magazine was then in its twelfth year, having been projected at 
the General Conference of 1840, and its first number issued at the 
beginning of the next year. Bev. L. L. Hamline was its editor 
during its first three and a half years, and when he was made bishop, 
in 1844, he was succeeded in his editorship by Bev. Edward Thomson. 
But the new appointee retained his position less than two years, and 



Davis Wasgatt Clark. 407 

was succeeded by Dr. B. F. Tefft, who, after iilling out the broken 
term for which Dr. Thomson had been chosen, served still four years 
longer, having been elected by the General Conference of 1848. It 
thus appears of the persons chosen by the General Conference to the 
control of that magazine, to the time now under notice, three were 
afterward called to the episcopacy. Since then Dr. Clark's successor 
in that place, Rev. Dr. Wiley, has also followed his editorial pred- 
ecessor into the more exalted position. 

Following the requirements of his newly assumed position, the 
new editor removed to Cincinnati, which continued to be his place 
of residence to the end of his life. His editorial term extended over 
nearly twelve years, being twice renewed by elections at the General 
Conferences of 1856 and 1860. Of his adaptation to the work of a 
literary editor, and how well he succeeded in it, the limits assigned to 
this sketch precludes any extended examination ; his repeated re- 
election to the place indicates the appreciation of his performance of 
it by the proj)er authorities of the Church ; and while the improve- 
ment of the magazine itself is the best proof of his editorial skill and 
ability, the steady enlargement of its circulation indicates the estimate 
set upon it by its readers. Tried by these standards, which are perhaps 
as nearly just as any that may be selected. Dr. Clark's career, as editor 
of the " Ladies' Repository " was highly successful. He took to the 
duties of his position with a good degree of zeal, and labored in them 
with a steadiness that was characteristic of the man in all he did, and 
with a cheerfulness which showed that his duties were not irksome. 
He was well read in general literature, both standard and current, and 
possessed a correct and somewhat cultivated taste for helles-leUres ; 
and these qualities of mind were now rendered available in his official 
duties. But the daily life of an editor is not usually marked with 
notable incidents, and, therefore, it affords very little matter for the 
biographer. 

In his ecclesiastic relations Dr. Clark never belonged to any other 
than the New York Conference, with which he retained his connec- 
tion during all the years of his editorship, and he seldom or never 
failed to attend its annual sessions. At the session of 1852 he was 
called to preach the " Conference " sermon, which he did, taking for 
his text St. Paul's profession of exclusive devotion to the " cross of 



408 Methodist Bishops. 

Christ." Tliat sermon produced a profound imj^ression upon all wlio 
heard it, both bv its matter and the forcibleness with which it was 
delivered. It was pubhshed, bj request of the Conference, and has 
had the rare good fortune to pass to a second or third edition. Of its 
high grade of merit as an able and deeply spiritual discourse the 
printed copies are sufficient demonstration, even without the peculiar 
force and unction that evidently attended its delivery. In 1855 his 
Conference chose him as one of its delegates to the General Confer- 
ence to be held at Indianapolis in May, 1856. He accordingly served 
m that body, and was recognized in it as a wise, able, and safe 
counselor, and, though not a prominent debater, yet he was felt to 
be a not inconsiderable member. 

His editorial duties extended not only to the ''Eepository,'' but 
also to all the books issued by the TTestern Book Concern. How 
much he did in this department of work to give form and substance 
and presentibleness to other people's productions can never be known 
nor guessed, except by those who have been called to render similar 
services. He also engaged in the more congenial work of compihng 
books for general reading, and especially for youth. Among those 
produced were a set of 'G.ve volumes, bearing the common name of 
" The Fireside Library," a collection of much more than the average 
excellence of its class. During these years the " Ladies' Repository " 
presented a large number of female characters, illustrated both 
pictorially and biographically. These were afterward collected in 
a superb volume, with the title, " Celebrated "Women." A companion 
volume soon followed this, called "Home Yiews," with over sixty 
landscape views, and accompanying letter-press description. He had 
some years earlier prepared and published his " Death-Bed Scenes," 
to which he now proposed a companion and alternative work, " Man 
all Immortal," presenting arguments for, and illustrations of, the 
future life. 

His home history about the time may perhaps cast some light 
upon the origin and character of the last-named work. He was 
eminently in all his feelings a family man, and from the time that 
he became the head of a family his domestic affairs had been 
peculiarly happy and prosperous. His children had somewhat multi- 
plied around him, and during these happy years death had not invaded 



Davis Wasgatt Clark. . 409 

the sacred precincts of his household. But in the autumn of 1853 
came their first great sorrow, by the sudden death of a daughter of 
only a little more than a year old, followed only a few weeks later by 
the departure of another of six years old. The stricken pai-ents 
recei>^ed these smitings of the Father's love with chastened and 
submissive grief ; but the experience opened to their hearts nevr 
or deeper subjects of meditation. The future life became to them 
nearer and more real because of those who had gone into it from 
their own circle, and the theme of iininortality became all the more 
sacred. 

During his residence in Cincinnati, tliough not formally connected 
with any local ecclesiastical body, Dr. Clark engaged zealously, and 
wrought effectively, in the religious ente]'prises of the place. He 
preached frecpiently in not only the Methodist pulpits of the city, but 
also in those of most of the other evangelical denominations, and he 
was often called to officiate on public occasions in places at a distance. 
He also eno^a2:ed in all the chief movements for the advancement of 
Methodism in those parts, in church building enterprises, and in the 
establishment of the Wesleyan Female College, and in a still wider and 
more catholic movement — the founding of a Theological and Religious 
Library Association, designed to bring within the reach of ministers and 
others of all denominations, at very little cost, the best religious litera- 
ture of the age. He also co-operated actively with the Evangelical 
Alliance of the city, and had the honor to be chosen its first jDresi- 
dent. In the stirrino^ times of the Rebellion he manifested his devo- 
tion to his country by earnestly advocating the cause of the Govern- 
ment against the insurgents, not refusing, when impending danger 
called every man to the defense of his home, to enroll himself, and 
take his place in the ranks of the city's defenders. At all times dur- 
ing these terrible years of conflict and suspense his influence was 
freely and earnestly given in favor of his country's cause ; and at its 
successful close he rejoiced exceedingly, not only that the war had 
ceased, but also that the country was saved, and its worst curse, slavery, 
removed. 

The General Conference of 1860 met at Buffalo, and Dr. Clark 
was again of the E'ew York delegation, leading it by virtue of the 
largest majority of votes. He was selected by his delegation to serve 



410 Methodist Bishops. 

on tlie Committee on Missions, of wliich lie was made tlie chairman, 
aiid on that of Eevisals. That session was greatly agitated by the con- 
test over the slavery question, which resulted at that time in the adop- 
tion of a declaration of the sense of the Conference, that the holding 
of slaves, "to be used as chattels," was an immorality, so placing 
the Church on a distinctively antislavery basis. This action had Dr. 
Clark's full sj^mjiathy and suj^port ; and he greatly rejoiced that he 
at length saw his beloved Methodism fully vindicated in this matter. 

The General Conference of 1864: was held in Philadelphia. The 
nation was still engaged in the struggles of civil war, but the new day 
of peace was already dawning, and the changed j)osition of the Gov- 
ernment in respect to slavery was already assured, and the Church 
found itself securely entrenched in the position it had taken four years 
before. Dr. Clark was again a delegate from the Xew York Confer- 
ence, and served on the Committee of Revisals, (of which he was chair- 
man,) where he was especially concerned in preparing and carrying 
through the Conference the revised ritual of the Church, of which 
he was, more than any other, the author. Three new bishops were also 
to be chosen, and that fact very naturally occasioned no little interest. 
As there were no party divisions in the body, so there seems to have 
been a most commendable absence of all objectionable methods for 
obtaining votes for favorite candidates, and especially for any of those 
that were finally elected. The balloting took place on the twentieth 
of May, in open Conference, but without any open nominations having 
been made. The first ballot gave D. W. Clark, 124 votes ; Edward 
Thomson, 123 ; and Calvin Kingsley, 100. A hundred and nine votes 
were required for election ; and, therefore, Clark and Thomson were 
chosen on the first ballot. On the second, Kingsley had 114, and was 
declared duly elected. The ordinations occurred four days later, and 
so the tranformation of our subject "into something new," if not 
" strange," was complete. The General Conference closed its session 
only three days later, having sat just four weeks, a shorter time than 
almost any other, and the newly-chosen bishops entered at once upon 
their high duties. A strange providence is that by which, in so short 
a time, all of them closed their useful and successful careers in 
death. 

Bishop Clark's first assignment of episcopal duty was to the 



Davis Wasgatt Clark. 411 

Conferences on tlie Pacific Coast, and in tlie Rockj Mountains. It was 
intended that he should proceed by the overland route by the mail 
stages, stopping at Denver to hold the Colorado Conference. It was 
afterward deemed best that he should first visit the Conferences far- 
thest west, and hold the Colorado Conference on his return. Accord- 
ingly he left ]!^ew York on the 28th of June for San Francisco, by 
the Isthmus route, where he arrived on the 30th of July. As the 
Oregon Conference was the first to meet, on the 9th of August, 
Bishop Clark took steamer at San Francisco for Portland, but through 
stress of weather and other difiiculties, the place of destination was 
not reached for more than a week. He accordingly did not reach the 
seat of the Conference, at Salem, till Saturday evening, tlie Conference 
having been in session for three or four days, and accomplished nearly 
all its duties.^ Enough, however, remained to be done to afford him 
his first taste of Annual Conference work. He returned southward 
by the Willamette Piver, the Umpqua, and the Pogue Piver, over the 
Siskion and the Trinity Mountains, to the base of Mount Shasta and 
the head-waters of the Sacramento Piver — the region since made fa- 
mous by the horrors of the Modoc war. On the 10th of September 
he dedicated a church at ITevada City, and after visiting Grass Yalley 
took steamer for San Francisco, where he arrived on the 15th, and 
three days later dedicated a new German church in that city, and 
on the afternoon of the same day another new church on Mission-street. 
On the 21st he opened the California Conference, which sat for 
eleven days, but with the best of order, notwithstanding the pecul- 
iar difiiculties that were encountered. He then turned his face east- 
ward, but learning that the passage through the Pocky Mountains was 
rendered impracticable by reason of Indian wars, he reluctantly 
accepted his only alternative, and returned by way of the Isthmus, 
arriving at home about the first of November, having in four months 
traveled eleven thousand three hundred miles by ocean steamers ; tAvo 
hundred and eighty by river steamers ; six hundred and fifty by stage ; 
and nineteen hundred and thirty-six by railroads. 

About the middle of JNTovember BishojD Clark was called to JSTew 
York to attend the semi-annual meeting of the bishops. After this 
he was allowed a few weeks of respite with his family, and then again 
was off upon his tour of spring Conferences. He first went to Cleve- 



412 • Methodist Bishops. 

land, to meet with the committee appointed by the General Conference 
to make arrangements for the coming Centenary of American Meth- 
odism. Next he proceeded to Baltimore, to attend the session of that 
venerable body ; and two weeks later he was at the Philadelphia Con- 
ference. After three weeks more he was at Yermont Conference, 
and from the third to the eighth of May he was engaged with the 
Maine Conference. Thence he returned by the way of Boston and 
]N^ew York to his home in Cincinnati. 

YTe have next to notice certain matters in Bishop Clark's official 
labors of very great interest — the opening np of onr Chnrch in the 
middle region of the Sonthern States, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, 
and Georgia. Some little had already been done in those parts, when, 
near the last of May, 1865, he went out thither for the purpose of 
fully organizing the Methodist Episcopal Church in those parts. On 
the first day of June he met, by appointment, a large number of 
ministers at Ivnoxville, East Tennessee, whom he was authorized to 
organize into an Annual Conference. Of these, six were regular 
ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, transferred from other 
Conferences for the purpose of forming a Conference in this part of 
the country. Forty other ministers were admitted, chiefly from the 
Church South, most of them into full connection, but some on trial. 
All these w^ere duly appointed to appropriate fields of labor, and so 
the Holston Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which had 
disappeared from our records twenty years before, now reappeared. 

A respite of two or three months was now enjoyed, yet not without 
laborious duties and perplexing occupations ; and then came the fall 
Conferences. Bishop Clark had for his part, Cincinnati, August 30 ; 
Detroit, September 13th ; and Ohio, September 21st. A trip to 'New 
York in ]N"ovember to attend the annual session of the General Mis- 
sionary Committee, and later to Philadelphia, where the semi-annual 
meeting of the bishops was held, closed the official record for the year, 
the second of Bishop Clark's episcopate. 

The Conferences assigned to Bishop Clark for the spring of 1866 
were, with a single exception, to the south of the Ohio River ; they 
were Kentucky, West Yirginia, North Indiana, and Holston. With 
the last of these he Avas especially interested, and to it he devoted 
more than the usual amount of time and labor. It was appointed to 



Davis Wasgatt Clakk. . 413 

be held at Gi*eenville, on the ITth of May. Leaving Cincinnati 
about a week in advance of that day, the bishop proceeded leisurely 
by way of Louisville, Nashville, Chattanooga, and Knoxville, to the 
place of meeting. The assembling of the Conference was like the 
return of the seventy disciples of Christ, a season of wonder and of 
great joy. Bishop Clark found himself among old friends, doubly 
endeared to him and he to them by the reminiscences of the past 
two years. The reports showed that the work had greatly prospered 
since the last session. The membership, including four thousand pro- 
bationers, was over eighteen thousand in number, and all departments 
of the work were in a prosperous condition. Fifty-seven preachers 
were appointed for the ensuing year. At the end of its first year 
from its reorganization the Ilolston Conference took its rank as by 
no means ^ the least considerable of the sisterhood of Annual Con- 
ferences. 

Bishop Clark's Conferences for the latter half of the year 1866 
were Central Ohio, Wisconsin, Rock Biver, and N^orth-west German, 
all of which were duly attended by him. It was also resolved by the 
bishops at their late meeting, that the time had fully come for the 
organization of the work in that larger portion of Tennessee not 
included in the Holston Conference, and that in northern Alabama 
and western Georgia into Conferences, and the execution of that task 
was assigned to Bishop Clark. Measures were accordingly taken to 
brino; too:ether all the available elements out of which to form a Con- 
ference for middle and western Tennessee at Murfreesborough, on 
the 11th day of October, 1866. A nucleus of seventeen traveling 
preachers appeared at the appointed time, and the organization of the 
Tennessee Conference was readily effected. The proceedings were 
harmonious, and the prospect full of promise for abundant labors and 
successes. About forty ministers were appointed to fields of labor ; 
fourteen colored preachers were ordained, and a number of them 
•admitted into the Conference. 

During Bishop Clark's connection with the southern work he 
became thoroughly convinced that a prime demand of that work 
lay in the direction of schools for the general instruction of the peo- 
ple, and especially of the children and young people of the colored 
race, and the more so because upon them the Church must rely for its 



414 Methodist Bishops. 

future supply of ministers for their own race. Under tliis conviction 
he was led to project the Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, which was organized at Cincinnati, soon after his 
return from Tennessee, and of which he was the first president. It 
existed as an independent association till the session of the General 
Conference of 1868, when it became a regular institution of the 
Church, and in 1872 it was placed upon the same footing with the 
other benevolent institutions of the Church. 

In l^ovember, 1866, Bishop Clark attended the annual meeting of 
the General Missionary Committee at ISTew York, where, in addition 
to looking after the general missionary interests of the Church, he 
had to care especially for the southern work, for which he sought and 
obtained liberal provisions. About the same time the bishops held 
their semi-annual meeting for the distribution among themselves of 
the spring Conferences. To Bishop Clark was assigned for the spring 
New York East, Troy, and East Maine ; for the early autumn, N"orth 
Ohio, Central German, Michigan, and Des Moines, and also, still later, 
the three newer Conferences in the South : Tennessee, Georgia, and 
Alabama. At the same meeting was adopted and sent forth an appeal 
to the Church in behalf of the measures already adopted by the Cliurch 
for securing the education of the freedmen, which, though officially 
the w^ork of the whole bodj^ of the bishops, was no doubt Bishop 
Clark's, as to both its inspiration and its composition. 

With the opening of the spring of 1867 Bishop Clark set out on 
his tour of eastern Conferences, going first to the ]N"ew York East, at 
l^ew Haven, Conn. Here he was among some of the associates of his 
early ministry ; and the m.eeting was evidently alike agreeable to both 
himself and them. He was domiciled during the session at the house 
of the venerable Heman Bangs, between whom and himself there had 
existed a warm attachment for many years, and of whom a touching 
sketch is given in his notes of this Conference. Two weeks later came 
the Troy Conference, at Pittsfield, Mass., and on the 2d of May the 
East Maine Conference, at Wiscassett. This Conference embraced in 
its territory the island of Mount Desert ; but though so near his native 
place, very few of the ministers of that body remembered the young 
man that was growing up amoug them more than thirty years before. 

His four Conferences in the north-west occurred on successive 



Davis Wasgatt Clark. 415 

weeks, concluding with the Des Moines, which closed on the 23d of 
September. And now he once more turned his face southward. Tlie 
Tennessee Conference, organized the preceding year, met for its sec- 
ond session at Shelbyville, on the 3d of October. The past year had 
been one of great labor with the preachers, and also one of eminent 
success ; and they came together filled with exultations for the past, 
and high hopes for the future, in all of which the bishop very fully 
participated. About fifty preachers were stationed, ten were trans- 
ferred to the yet unorganized Georgia Conference, and one to that of 
Alabama. His next point of operation was Atlanta, Ga. The work 
in that State had been carried on during the past year with marked 
success, as a district of the Tennessee Conference ; it was now to be 
organized as a distinct Conference. More than fifty preachers met 
him at his coming, and their reports from various portions of the 
State were of the most encouraging character. The session was a 
season of intense interest. At its close about sixty preachers received 
their appointments, and went forth gladly to their designated fields of 
labor. Thence he proceeded to Talladega, Ala., where the scenes 
lately witnessed at Atlanta were repeated, though scarcely on so broad 
a scale. Forty-two preachers were admitted on trial, and at the close 
of the session there were in tlie Conference eighteen elders, nineteen 
deacons, and seven unordained preachers. The work was distributed 
into seven j)residing elders' districts, covering nearly the whole State, 
though the membership was chiefly in the northern part. This was 
the fourth Annual Conference organized by Bishop Clark in what Avas 
called the " Middle District " of the South. There were now in these 
four Conferences not less than 500 preachers, traveling and local, and 
38,000 Church members. This work had been from the beginning 
chiefly imder his supervision, and perhaps no other part of his life's 
work was more fruitful of results, whether immediate or prospec- 
tive, and none more decidedly marked by his characteristic zeal and 
discretion. 

For the spring of 1868 Bishop Clark received for his oversight the 
East Baltimore, l^ewark, jN"ew York, and Oneida Conferences, all of 
which he attended in their order. These several bodies now chose 
their delegates to the General Conference, to be held at Chicago in 
May of that year ; and to that session both the bishop and the chosen 



416 Methodist Bishops. 

delegates almost immediately repaired. Tins was the first General 
Conference to wliicli Bishop Clark had come to render an account of 
his episcopal administration. At the beginning of the four years' 
term, during which he had discharged the high functions of a bishop 
in the Church, there w^ere nine bishops, two of whom were unfitted 
for service by infirmity or disease, leaving seven effective men to do 
tlie work of the episcopacy ; and since that work had been satisfac- 
torily performed by them it was not deemed necessary to add to their 
number. The session of the General Conference was harmonious, 
though not unmarked with several features of considerable interest. 
The progress of the Church's affairs during the preceding four years 
had been such as greatly to encourage all hearts, and to stimulate to 
still greater efforts in the future. 

After the close of the General Conference, and a few weeks of 
respite. Bishop Clark began his autumn tour of Conferences, attend- 
ing first the Cincinnati, and next the South-east Indiana Conference, 
and then he turned his face again to the South. On the 1st of 
October he met the Tennessee Conference, at M'Minnville, and was 
again permitted to rejoice w^ith the heroic men whom he had sent out 
into that difficult but promising field at each of their two preceding 
sessions. It was both to himself and to them an occasion of unusual 
interest. Of the sixty names on the Conference roll, forty-one were 
of preachers on trial, about half of them colored men. The past had 
been a year alike of severe trials and of marked successes. The heroic 
element abounded in the body, and was largely increased during the 
session ; and at the close each man went forth w^ith an inflamed zeal 
to labor and suffer in the cause of the divine Master. Only a wxek 
later was the session of the Holston Conference, at Chattanooga, the 
fourth held by that body, all but one of which were presided over by 
Bishop Clark. There had been a net gain of 2,000 members, and 
twenty preachers were received on trial. As the people of East 
Tennessee were generally loyal to the Union, there was much less per- 
secution in this Conference than in some others ; and all parts of the 
work showed an encouraging advance. Yet a week later Bishop Clark 
again met the Georgia Conference, at Atlanta, where, of course, he 
was received and greeted as their apostle. The body was in fine con- 
dition, and the reports show^ed that it had been a year of success. 



Davis Wasgatt Claek. 417 

Twelve preacliers were received on trial, three ordained elders and 
eight deacons — five of these were colored men. There had been a net 
increase in members of 4,500, making an aggregate for the Conference 
of abont 15,000. [NText, and only a week later, came the session of the 
Alabama Conference, at Murphree's Yalley. Fifteen preachers were 
admitted on trial, and the increase of members amounted to 2,300. 
At the end of this route the bishop spoke of it as laborious but pros- 
perous ; and of the w^ork in all the region visited as " consolidated, 
strengthened, and wonderfully enlarged." 

For his spring labors Bishop Clark accepted the presidency of no 
less than seven Conferences : Baltimore, 'New Jersey, New Hamp- 
shire, Providence, Black River, Maine, and East Maine ; attendance 
upon which occupied him during nearly the whole of the three spring 
months. The last of these brought him into the neighborhood of his 
childhood and youth, and he availed himself of the opportunity to 
visit the place of his birth and such of his surviving relatives as still 
remained in those parts. 

For the autumn of that year he had five Conferences in the north- 
west : Des Moines, l^orth-west Indiana, l^orth-west German, Upper 
Iowa, and Rock River ; all of which were duly attended and success- 
fully presided over. In November following he was in New York, 
attending upon the annual meeting of the General Missionary Com- 
mittee. At that time the Book Committee was also in session, 
engaged in the perplexing duties devolved upon them by the strifes 
between one of the Book Agents, against his colleague and superior in 
office, and others connected with the Concern. Uj)on these things 
Bishop Clark was known to have decided convictions, which he did 
not hesitate to express, though he was not at any time called to act 
upon the case, else, probably, the results reached would have differed 
from those arrived at. 

For the next spring, 18Y0, five Conferences, chiefly south-western, 
were assigned to Bishop Clark : St. Louis, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, 
and North Indiana. His trips through Missouri and Kansas gave him 
an experience of frontiering in spring time such as he had not had 
before, and for which he seemed to feel no special favor. It was while 
engaged in this episcopal tour that he was shocked and saddened 
by the news of the sudden death of his colleague and personal friend, 
25 



418 Methodist Bishops. 

Bishop Tliomson, wlilcli occurred at Wlieeling, West Virginia, early 
in March ; and soon after his return, he was again startled by the news 
of the death of Bishop Kingsley, at Beyroot, Syria. His own health 
had not maintained its usual robustness during all these trying labors, 
though neither he nor his friends then apprehended the character of 
the disease that began to be felt in his system. He returned to his 
home wearied with his labor, and saddened on account of the depart- 
ure of his honored and beloved colleagues, but also refreshed in his 
spirit and strong in faith and hope. His summer vacation was devoted 
to a health-seeking excursion, with a portion of his family, among the 
mountains of I^ew Hampshire and in Maine, including a visit of some 
extent to his native place, by which he seemed to be restored to his 
usual health and buoyancy of spirits, giving occasion for hopes that 
were to be all too soon blasted. 

The now greatly lessened episcopal force of Methodism found a 
heavier burden to be borne by them in attending the Conference ses- 
sions for the ensuing year, and, therefore, it became neccessary that each 
one of them should undertake all that his strength would enable him 
to perform. To Bishop Clark were assigned nine Conferences, to be 
held between the latter part of August and the end of October. 
These were chiefly in the North-west — Detroit, Michigan, Central 
Ohio, Central German, Erie, E^orth-west German, West Wisconsin, 
Minnesota, Wisconsin. The hopes entertained of restored health and 
strength at his return from his eastern excursion, were soon proved 
to be not well founded, and he soon came to realize that he stood 
"hourly in the face of death." And yet he went forward in his work, 
met all of his Conferences, and performed his duties in each, though 
evidently laboring in great distress, and confessing that it was painful 
to thus drag himself along, and to whip himself up to duty by day, 
and then to sink back into exhaustion, and to spend the night with- 
out rest. Only the force of his will, sustained by faith in God, car- 
ried him through these arduous labors for one so burdened with disease. 
But he would accept of no release while able to be about, and accord- 
ingly he proceeded to 'New York in November, and then returned to 
his horde, where he remained during the w^inter. But with the ap- 
proach of spring, his strength having somewhat rallied during his 
winter's repose, he was again off to his episcopal work, of which he 



Davis Wasgatt Clakk. 419 

had comj)elled liis colleagues to give liim liis full share. He first 
attended the Lexington Conference, which met on the 23d of Febru- 
ary ; after that the Kentucky Conference, at Louisville, when his phy- 
sician warned him to " stop work '' as he valued his life. Thence he 
proceeded to the West Yirginia Conference, at Parkersburgh, and after 
that to the Pittsburgh Conference, at Steubenville, Ohio ; but before 
that was closed there were manifest tokens of failing strength, though 
its duties were properly performed, and, though in evident weakness, 
yet somewhat comfortably. Next came the long journey to Boston, 
and the session of the New England Conference, through which he 
struggled painfully, keeping himself up by the force of an indomi- 
table purpose to defer the crisis of entire failure as long as possible. 
Only one more Conference remained to be held, and to that he had 
looked forward with the liveliest interest. The New York Confer- 
ence for 1871 met at Peekskill, on the Hudson, April 6th. Thither 
Bishop Clark proceeded, attended by his ever faithful and devoted 
wife, who had attended him during all his journeys and waitings since 
he last left his home, acting in the double relation of traveling com- 
panion and nurse, and appeared in the Conference room at the 
appointed hour, and proceeded to open the Conference session. He 
first gave out, with manifest emotion, as though its language was 
peculiarly appropriate to the occasion, the hymn beginning — 
"And are we yet alive, 
And see each other's face ? " 

Prayer was offered by another ; next the roll was called, and the 
organization of the body completed. The administration of the 
Lord's Supper was the next thing in order, at which he officiated so 
far as to commune himself and to distribute the elements to those 
around the table. After this he briefly, but with marked tenderness, 
addressed the Conference, speaking of his long and endeared con- 
nection with them, and of the ravages which death "had made among 
them, with extremely delicate yet evident references to his own 
failing strength and evidently brief future stay among things earthly. 
He then yielded the chair to Bishop Simpson, who, aware of the 
feeble condition of his beloved colleague, had taken pains to be with 
him on that occasion, and as far as possible to lighten his burdens ; he 
passed out of the Church. His work was done. 



420 Methodist Bishops. 

He returned to liis temporary home in a state of almost complete 
prostration, against which he now for the first time seemed to cease 
to struggle. But through the kind offices of friends, and especially 
of Mrs. Clark, who attended him as a guardian angel, he at length so 
far rallied as to be able to be conveyed to his distant home — a thino^ 
made possible only by the improyed modern facilities for trayeling. 
Attended by his loving wife, and two ministers of the Z^ew York 
Conference and his attending physician, he took his place in one of 
the sleeping cars of the Hudson Riyer Eailroad, and after a journey 
of nearly a thousand miles, and without any great prostration, he 
reached his destination early on the 19th of April. He was now at 
home. His children came about him, and a few near friends were 
permitted to see him, and among these sacred surroundings his 
spirits and also his physical strength were rallied into new vigor. 
His chamber now became a scene of holy peace and rejoicing. His 
faith was unshaken, and the fear of death quite gone. He lingered 
in much pain at times, but always in great peace, which sometimes 
rose to a holy triumph, till the 23d day of May, when he gently fell 
asleep. He expired at his home and in the bosom of his family, 
surrounded by those who loved him. His remains were borne by 
loving hands to their last resting-place ; and the bereaved Church, 
which he served with eminent abihty and fidelity, mourned his de- 
parture, not for his, but for her own loss. 

In person Bishop Clark was above middle size, with well-developed 
members, and of rather full habit. He was of a fair complexion, 
a little florid, and with dark auburn hair. In a promiscuous com- 
pany he would attract the eye of a stranger, and be recognized as a 
more than ordinary man. His manner was quiet, and in all things 
he seemed to be thoroughly well-poised. Till attacked by the disease 
to which he at length succumbed his physical condition seemed to 
be almost perfect; His muscular system was well-developed, and his 
vital forces strong and steady. His mental characteristics cor- 
responded with those of his body. He was both able to work and 
inclined to mental activity, and thus he was enabled to achieve 
valuable results. He attained to a good degree in both learning 
and culture^ not by any special aptitude or genius, but by well-directed 
efforts made with dne energy and persistence of effort. 



Davis Wasgatt Clark. 421 

His moral qualities were especially largely developed and always 
active. He detected the riglit or wrong of whatever subject liaving 
moral qualities or relations might be presented, and what his en- 
lightened conscience condemned, he at once rejected. Duty was his 
ever-governing law of conduct, even though following out its pre- 
cepts cost him many painful sacrifices. He was not, j^erhaps, 
incapable of erring in his decisions or actions ; but if he did so the 
error must begin in his perceptions of duty, and the misleadings of 
an understanding not sufficiently enlightened. Whatever his con- 
science dictated that he would surely do. 

His religious life pervade-d his nature and fashioned his whole 
career, and yet it was not especially demonstrative or emotional. He 
very clearly apprehended both the law" and the gospel, and accordingly 
liis humiliation and repentance toward God were deep and sincere, 
and his trust in the availing worth of the atonement of Christ was 
complete and altogether satisfying. His piety was deep and stead- 
fast; and though he was not especially communicative as to his 
spiritual affairs, yet those who knew him best could attest both the 
genuineness and the depth of his religious experience. 

We have placed Bishop Clark in the category of self-made men, 
and as that matter is commonly reckoned, few have been more fairly 
entitled to that place. He was, indeed, endow^ed by nature with a 
sound mind in a sound body, and in addition to this his early sur- 
roundings were favorable for the beginning of a wholesome develop- 
ment of mind and character. His aims were from the beginning 
in the right direction, and as high as the circumstances allowed. And 
he steadily rose with his opportunities, and so was a.ble to achieve 
greatness. 

In his ecclesiastical relations Bishop Clark seems to have been at 
all times satisfied, and even happy. He held the great doctrines of 
Christianity as set forth in the standards of Methodism with a firm 
and intelligent faith. His effectiveness as a Cliristian minister 
suffered no abatement by reason of painful and paralyzing doubts in 
his own mind in respect to the things that he was called to declare. 
He was also sincerely devoted to the polity and traditional administra- 
tion of Methodism, which he sought to preserve, and to modify only 
to correct any previous departure from its original and essential spirit. 



422 



Methodist Bishops. 



He accepted cheerfully the work assigned to liim, in the order of the 
Church, and in every case he magnified his office by faithfully per- 
forming its duties. He was eminently fitted for his last and highest 
position in the Church, and in all futm-e times he will be remembered 
as a model Methodist ejpisco^os. 

The contemplation of such a career and character suggests the 
thought of success in well-doing. Bishop Clark was. indeed, in the 
best sense of the expression, a successful man. He rose steadily from 
small beginnings to greatness, and better still, to eminent usefulness. 
Forty years of active -manhood was afforded him, and at the beginning 
of life's decadence, before decrepitude had marred the symmetry of 
that manhood, he was removed to a higher and holier sphere, leaving 
to his survivors only the remembrance of his excellences. 

THE GKEAT HEREAFTEE. 

During the last illness of Bishop Clark his mind ran much on one 
of Otway Curry's poems, which had been published in the " Ladies' 
Repository " while under the editorial management of Dr. (afterward 
Bishop) Thomson. To one of the ministers who watched with him 
one night he repeated the greater part of the poem. It follows : — 



'Tis sweet to think, when struggling 

The goal of life to win, 
That just beyond the shores .of time 

The better years begin. 

When through the nameless ages 

I cast my longing eyes, 
Before me, like a boundless sea. 

The Great Hereafter lies. 

Along its brimming bosom 
Perpetual summer smiles. 

And gathers like a golden robe 
Around the emerald isles. 

There, in the blue, long distance, 
By lulling breezes fanned, 



Of the old Beulah land : 

And far beyond the islands. 
That gem the waves serene. 

The image of the cloudless shore 
Of holy heaven is seen. 

Unto the Great Hereafter — 
Aforetime dim and dark — 

I freely now and gladly give 
Of life the wand'ring bark. 

And in the far-ofF haven, 

When shadowy seas are passed, 
By angel hands its quivering sails 

Shall all be furled at last. 






>v^ 



Edward Thomson. 



BY BISHOP GILBERT HAVEN. 



IE" a great house there are not only vessels of silver and of gold, but 
of wood and of earth. Bishop Thomson, in the great house of 
the Church of God, was a vessel of gold. His career from childhood 
to age, from birth to death, was symmetrical. Not a flaw lurked in 
the material, not a defect was wrought into the work. The substance 
was good, and the form and finish equally excellent. 

Edward Thomson was born at Portsea, England, October 12, 1810. 
This place is the seaward portion of the harbor of Portsmouth. Port- 
sea is situated on the southern shore of England, and among her 
softest and richest scenery. The Isle of Wight, not far off, has long 
been selected by Tennyson as his home because of the rare combina- 
tions of rough water and smooth land, of mild and stimulant breezes, 
of wild and cultured scenery. Here, too, the Queen finds her favorite 
home, alternating it with the mountain fastness of Balmoral. The 
same shore is historic with the triumphs of William, whose immediate 
descendants cling to it from its proximity to E^ormandy. The ashes 
of many of the earlier members of the royal house repose in the 
Cathedral of Winchester, almost within sight of the coast, and within 
easy reach of Portsmouth. In his letters from England, written on a 
tour thither for the purpose of purchasing books for the library of the 
Ohio Wesleyan University, Dr. Thomson gives an account of a visit 
to his native town, and dwells on its features with evident delight. 
Thus he refers to his entrance into the city : 

The bells were ringing a merry peal, the roar of artillery was booming over 
the sea, and military bands were playing martial airs as I entered my native 
city. This all might have been intended for the lords of the admiralty, who 
arrived in the same train that I did; but then it answered just as well as if it 
had been exclusively to greet my appearance. Entering a carriage, I was soon 
put down at the George Hotel, where all the lords of the admiralty put up. 
After they had inspected the port they gave a grand ball, which, however, I 
did not attend for several reasons, one of wliich was that I was not invited. 



426 Methodist Bishops. 

Soiithsea is a charming promenade. On one side you have liandsome 
terraces, on the other the groves and buildings of the "King's Rooms," a cele- 
brated watering- place. Here you may obtain hot, cold, or shower baths. The 
prospects from the terraces and from the colonnade of the "King's Rooms " are 
enchanting — the shipping, the Isle of Wight with its majestic hills, the inner 
harbor with its fortresses, the gun-wharf and the dock-yard, the castle and the 
open sea. At one end of the Clarence esplanade are statues of Wellington and 
Nelson, The fortifications, which were the favorite scene of my childhood's 
rambles and gambols, were conimenced in the time of Edward IV., and com- 
pleted, nearly as they now are, in tlie reign of William III. 

Wandering about, we meet with a number of monuments to remind us that 
we are in an old country. On a venerable building where, before the intro- 
duction of the electric telegraph rose the semaphore, from which signals were 
made to ships and communication held with London, is a bust of Charles I. 
with this inscription: "King Charles the First, after his travels througli France 
and Spain, and having passed many dangers both by sea and land, he arrived 
here the tenth day of October, 1623." The object of his travels was to see his 
intended bride, the daughter of the Spanish king. Happy for him, and perhaps 
for his country too, had he never returned. 

On High-street two objects attracted notice, one on one side, the other on 
the opposite; the one a spacious and elegant Unitarian church, erected 1719, 
long before, as I supposed, this form of heterodoxy had obtained mucli influence 
in England; the other, an antique house, celebrated as the one in which the 
Duke of Buckingham was assassinated by Felton, August 22, 1628. In the 
"Portsmouth Church" there is a monument to the duke. It consists of an urn 
surmounted by a phoenix, having on each side pyramids of warlike instruments; 
above are the arms of the house of Villiers; beneath, the figures of Fame and 
Sincerity. On the tablet is a Latin inscription, attributing to the noble per- 
scma^e to whom it is consecrated the most exalted abilities and the most 
charming excellences. Yerily, it would be hard to prove human depravity from 
grave-stones. This Portsmouth Church is one of the most noticeable objects in 
the place. It was originally built in 1220, and dedicated to Thomas Becket, 
but was rebuilt in 1693, except the chancel and transept, which are those of 
the orioinal structure. The marriage registry book of the Church is an object 
of o-reat curiosity, because of the register of the marriage of Charles II. with 
the infanta of Portugal, 1662. 

In the museum of the city he saw the figure-head of the " Eesolu- 
tion," the ship in which Captain Cook circumnavigated the globe. 
Three miles and a half out of the city stands Fortchester Castle, 
twenty miles from Southampton and Chichester, which lie in oppo- 
site directions from it. It is a Roman fortification, built between the 



Edwakd Thomson. 427 

reigns of Claudius, A. D. 42, and of Yespasian, A. D. 80. In A. D. 
286 tliis port was the chief naval arsenal of Carusius. It was long 
the strong point for Koman, and afterward for Anglo-Saxon, defense. 
Dr. Thomson passes from these historic celebrities connected with 
his native town to incidents which pertained to his family : 

Returning to the city, I took, next day, a more select walk, in company with 
a relative; and you may imagine my feelings as he, in passing, said: " Here is 
where your grandfather made his money. This is the house where he lived in 
retirement, and where your mother was married. Tliis is the house where you 
was born. That is the house where your father sank his fortune," etc. 

Off to Kingston now, to look among the graves. Here lie the ashes of my 
ancestors for successive generations; the faithful, moss-grown stones still bear 
their names and dates. I picked a daisy for my mother from her father's grave. 
The old sexton, inquiring my residence, leaped in ecstasy. 

" Ohio! dear me, I have just been reading a story about a gal that lived on 
the Ohio." Taking me back to his house, and calling his wife, he said : 
"Betsy! here, Betsy! see, here is a man from Ohio! just see: from the very 
place we have been reading about. Get the paper! get the paper ! " He showed 
me the tale, but I have forgotten the title. 

I was but seven years old when I left my native land, and could, therefore, 
recognize nothing. Although I have forgotten the abodes and scenes of child- 
hood, I have not forgotten the persons associated with my early years. 

These references show that he was well born. Not in the titled 
ranks, probably not in those which are technically known as the 
families of gentlemen, but in the higher ranks of the professional 
and mercantile classes. His father, meeting with reverses, and living 
at the port whence so many had sailed westward, even from the times 
of the Pilgrims until now, was easily impressed with a desire to 
renew his fortunes in the distant West. His son Edward was in his 
ninth year wdien the family emigrated to America. It consisted of 
his father, his mother, his sisters Jane and Elizabeth, his brothers 
James and Benjamin, and himself. He was the middle one of the 
five children. Before starting for this continent tliey passed over to 
France in 181Y, and spent about a year in that country. On April 28, 
1818, they left for this country, which they reached in the June 
following. On the way they were run down and boarded by pirates. 
The captain of their vessel and the captain of the pirate craft were 
brothers, who had not met for eighteen years. They recognized each 



428 Methodist Bishops. 

otlier at once, and the wild Eaau of tlie sea supplied his steady 
brother with water and bread, and departed. Who can say that this 
sickly boy was not the cause of that providential preservation ? 

The family lingered in IN'ew York, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh 
for about a year, hesitating where to settle. But in May, 1819, they 
made their permanent home in Wooster, Ohio, where the father 
engaged in the business of a druggist. 

Edward was soon sent to school, where he remained for four or 
five years, assisting his fatliei* out of school hours and in vacations in 
his store. He was very fond of his books, and pursued his studies, 
and especially his reading, with great ardor in these youthful days. 
His father's business directed his attention to the study of medicine, 
and he early exhibited a desire to make that profession his life-w^ork. 
He went to Philadelphia to attend medical lectures, and before he 
was twenty-one he graduated and begun his career as a physician 
in what was to him the place of his native town : for here he had 
spent his youth and early manhood in that development of conscious- 
ness and self-reliance Vvdiich the period of " the teens " first unfolds 
and enlaro^es. 

This town was eminently fitted for these embryonic processes. 
Snuggled among lowly hills, whose soft and rich slopes were covered 
with magnificent forests, then untouched by the spoiler, watered 
by a beautiful stream whose banks were shaded with tall trees and 
hanging vines, it possessed every charm to nurture the brave and 
tender soul that was embosomed in its influences. 

The little township contained some fifteen hundred persons, whose 
society afforded tlie human stimulus needful for his spirit's growth. 
Like all coast towns, there was in it a higher grade of culture and 
more activity of thought than in more purely rural and retired com- 
munities. So that young Thomson had opportunities of develop- 
ment and incitements that were of a superior sort, and which he also 
faithfully used. His profession was itself stimulating to intellect, 
but not to faith. A young man, not yet entered on his majority, hav- 
ing studied in the most famous schools of his art, and in one of the 
chief centers of national wealth, population, and culture, he commenced 
in his practically native American village the practice of the pro- 
fession that, more than all others, tempts to doubt. For, being of 



Edward Thomson. 429 

the earth, it naturally tends to the earthy. Engaged exclusively in 
the investigations of the body, it is apt to exclude belief from the soul. 
Studying disease that is material, it is inclined to ignore the disease 
that is spiritual. Though every step in this profession should lead 
to those in the higher one of theology, observation teaches that now, 
as in the days of Chaucer and before, the physician is not so easily 
inclined to faith as those of less material profession. 

Dr. Thomson was not unlike his school. His teachers had af- 
fected his mind with doubt, which his profession seemed to encourage. 
A gentleman and a scholar, of composed demeanor, and ambitious to 
excel, he was yet a stranger to the covenant of promise, an alien from 
the commonwealth of Israel, without God, and therefore without 
hope in the world. This may sound sharp to tlie unregenerate man, 
but it is true. And true this intelligent gentleman found it to be. 
His professor had infused skeptical sentiments into his teachings and 
pupils. How w^ould that same professor have condemned the prac- 
tice that would have injected j)oisons. into the healthy physical sys- 
tem 1 How much more should his conscience have condemned him for 
infusing poison into the healthy moral system, always to its injury, 
and often to its everlasting ruin ! 

But as a healthy body may reject poison, so may a healthy soul. 
It may even be profitable for it to receive such treatment, as thus it 
knows by experience the condition of others similarly affected. It 
seems fated to every strong spirit that it shall be tempted to in- 
fidelity. The first man, Adam, and the second, Christ, were thus 
tried in the fires of unbelief — the first to his and our ruin, the 
second to his and our triumph. So has every other leader of men. 
Moses, David, Elijah, and Paul were thus proved. Thus, too, the 
great leaders of later times. Augustine and Abelard, Calvin and 
Luther, Bunyan and Whitefield, Pascal and Edwards, Wesley and 
Cowper. Thus, undoubtedly, would the hidden life of almost every 
Christian leader, if revealed, disclose a fierce iight with the adversary 
upon the very foundations of faith. 

The only difference between Christian and antichristian leaders 
is, that the Cliristian have fought through the ranks of the enemy 
into the heights of truth and faith beyond ; the antichristian have 
been captured by the foe, and made to serve in his army against God 



430 Methodist Bishops. 

and his Spirit. Tims Celsus was caiiglit while Origen broke through 
the lines. Thus Arius was captured while Athanasius conquered. 
Thus Yoltaire surrendered and Pascal overcame. 

Dr. Thomson, the physician, found himself in the midst of this 
conflict. He came very near sinking under his foes. He was ten years 
lighting through it. It was a personal Iliad that powerfully affected 
all his ministerial words. He was led by steps he had not known, and 
that he desired not to know, to see the results of the surrender of his 
soul to the tempter. His first acknowledged step in the divine direc- 
tion was on January 1, 1826. He had then been practicing medicine 
about six years, and was of recognized standing in the community. 
The Methodist preacher stationed in Wooster, Eev. H. O. Sheldon, 
had preached an earnest sermon, appropriate to the commencement 
of the year, and at the close of the service invited all who wished to 
live a religious life to tarry, ^one left, and nearly all promised to 
make full consecration of themselves to God. Dr. Thomson after- 
ward informed the preacher .that he remained with the rest of the 
audience. But he was lost in the mass, and did not presume to in- 
dividualize himself, as every one must do if he would secure individ- 
ual salvation. 

It was not till three years and a half after this, in the summer of 
1829, that the second conscious step toward the divine life was taken. 
This time it w^as not as free and self-impelled as the first. He had 
become so indifferent, that, though a regalar, or at least a frequent, 
attendant on divine worshijD, he was not apparently affected by it. He 
himself tells the story of this second conscious visitation of the Spirit 
in this vivid narrative of the man and the sermon whereby he was 
aroused. His literary skill is evinced in the composition of the story : 

Russell Bigelow was an extraordinary man, and his merits were never fully 
appreciated even by the Church. He emigrated, at an early age, from New En- 
gland to the West, and from his youth being accustomed to read the Bible upon 
his knees, he soon became remarkable for his piety. It is probable that he was 
favored with no more than a good common-school education before he entered 
the itineralac}^, of which he was so conspicuous an ornament. 

I was a student in the beautiful village of Wooster, where I first heard of 
him. Opposite our office was a coppersmith, a man of remarkable mind and 
character. He had been reared without any education, and had been unfortunate 
in his business relations; but, having spent his leisure in reading, and in conver- 



Edward TiiOMsoisr. 431 

sation with persons of better attainments, he liarl acquired a stock of valuable 
knowledge which his grappling intellect well knew how to use. He was an active 
politician. In times of excitement he gathered the multitude around him, and 
often nrrested our studies by his stentorian voice, which could drown the clatter 
of his hammers and the confusion even of Bedlam. I think I mny safely say, 
that for many years he wielded the political destinies of his county. Never in office 
himself, his will determined who should be. This man had imbibed skeptical 
opinions, which he often inculcated with terrific energy. He rarely went to the 
liouse of God, and when he did, I suppose he might as well have stayed at home, 
for I should have thought it as easy to melt a rock with a fagot as to subdue his 
heart by the "foolishness of preaching." 

One Saturday evening he came into our office with a peculiar expression of 
countenance. The tear started from his eye as he said, "I have been to meeting, 
and, by the grace of God, I will continue as long as it lasts. Come, young gentle- 
men, come and hear Bigelow. He will show you the w^orld and the human heart 
and the Bible and the cross in such a light as you have never before seen them ! " 
I trembled beneath the announcement; for, if the i)rencher had prostrated a 
fainting multitude at his feet, he would not have given me as convincing a proof 
of his power as that which stood before me. Tliis was the first account I ever 
heard of Bigelow, and from that time I avoided the Methodist Church till he 
left the village. 

One morning of the ensuing summer my preceptor came in and said, "Thom- 
son, come, mount old Black, and go with me to camp-meeting." 

" Excuse me, sir, I have no desire to go to such a nursery of vice and enthu- 
siasm." 

"0, you are too bigoted. Presbyterian as I am, I confess I like camp-meet- 
ings. There a man can forget the business of life, and listen to the truth without 
distraction, and then ponder on it and pray over it and feel it. Good impres- 
sions are made every Sabbath; but they rarely bring forth fruit; they are worn 
away by the business of the week. At camp-meeting the heart can first be heated, 
and then, while yet warm, placed upon the anvil and beaten into shape." 

"I was once at a camp-meeting two hours, and that satisfied me. The heart 
may be warmed there, but I doubt the purity of the fire which heats it." 

"A truce to argument. I have a patient there I want you to see. You have 
no objection to go professionally ? " 

"No, sir, I will go anywhere to see a patient." 

It was a lovely morning. The sun was shining from a cloudless sky, and the 
fresh breezes fanned us as we rode by well-cultivated and fertile fields, waving 
with their rich and ripening harvests. After a short journey we came to the 
encampment. A broad beam of daylight showed things to advantage, and I 
could but think, as I gazed from an elevated point, and drank in the sweet songs 
that reverberated through the grove, of some of the scenes of Scripture. My 



432 Methodist Bishops. 

rebel heart was constrained to cry witliin me, "How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, 
and thy taoernacles, O Israel ! As the valleys are they spread forth — as gardens 
by the river's side." Having visited the sick whom we had come to see, we were 
invited, with great kindness and cordialit}^ to partake of refreshments. The 
warmth of our reception excited my gratitude, and instead of starting home 
when the horn blew for preaching, I sat down respectfully to hear the sermon. 
Bigelow was to preach. I dreaded the occasion, but had always been taught to 
venerate religion, and had never seen the day when I could ridicule or disturb 
even the Mohammedan at his prayer or the pagan at his idol. In the pulpit were 
many clergymen, two of whom I knew and esteemed — the one a tall, majestic 
man, whose vigorous frame symbolized his noble mind and generous lieart; the 
other a small, delicate, graceful gentleman, whom nature had fitted for a uni- 
versal favorite. Had I 1)een consulted, one of them sliould have occupied the 
pulpit at that time. All was stillness and attention when the Presiding Elder 
stepped forward. Never was I so disappointed in a man's personal appearance. 
He was beloAv the middle stature, and clad in coarse, ill-made garments. His 
uncombed hair hung loosely over his forehead. His attitudes and motions were 
exceedingly ungraceful, and every feature of his countenance was unprepossess- 
ing. Upon minutely examining him, however, I became better pleased. The 
long hair that came down to his cheeks covered a broad and prominent forehead ; 
the keen eye that peered from beneath his heavy and overjetting eyebrows beamed 
with deep and jDenetrating intelligence; the prominent cheekbones, projecting 
chin, and large nose, indicated anything but intellectual feebleness; while the 
wide mouth, depressed at its corners, the slightly expanded nostril, and the tout 
ensemJjle, indicated sorrow and love, and well assorted with the message, " Come 
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 

As he commenced I determined to watch for his faults; but before heJiad 
closed his introduction I concluded that his words were pufe and well chosen, 
liis accents never misplaced, his sentences grammatical, artistically constructed, 
and well arranged, both for harmony and effect; and when he entered fully upon 
his sul ject I was disposed to resign myself to the argument, and leave the speaker 
in the hands of more skillful critics. Having stated and illustrated his position 
clearly, he laid broad the foundation of his argument, and piled stone upon stone, 
hewed and polished, till he stood on a majestic pyramid, with heaven's own light 
around him, pointing the astonished multitude to a brighter home beyond the sun, 
and bidding defiance to the enemy to move one fragment of the rock on which 
his feet were planted. 

His argument being completed, his peroration commenced. This was grand 
beyond description. The whole universe seemed animated by its Creator to aid 
him in persuading the sinner to return to God, and the angels commi.-sioned to 
open heaven and come down to strengthen him. Now he opens the mouth of 
the pit, and takes us through its gloomy avenues, while the bolts retreat, and the 



Edward Tho.aisott. 433 

doors of damnation burst open, and the wail of the lost enters our ears. And 
now lie opens lieaven, transports us to the flowery plains, stands ns amid the 
armies of the blest, to sweep, with celestial fingers, angelic harps, and join the 
eternal chorus, "Worthy, worthy is the Lamb.'' As he closed his discourse 
every energy of his bo<1y and mind was stretched to the utmost point of tension. 
His soul appeared to be too great for its tenement, and every moment ready to 
burst through and soar away, as the eagle soars toward heaven. His lungs hibored, 
his arms rose, the perspiration flowed in a steady stream upon the floor, and every 
thing about him seemed to say, "O that my head were waters! " But the audi- 
ence thought not of the struggling bo(l3^ nor even of the giant mind within, for 
they were paralyzed beneath the avalanche of thought that descended upon 
them. 

But Thomson was not jet ready to surrender. Even this marvel- 
ous sermon left him still with a heart like an adamantine stone. The 
lightnings struck the rock, and the torrents poured upon a marble 
soul. It was cleft asunder, but not broken in pieces. Two years and 
a half after this the hour of crumbling came. His pastor, who had 
preached the first sermon to which he had responded, January, 1826, 
was again his pastor six years later. Let him tell the story of the 
great change : — 

In 1829 Dr. Thomson heard a discourse from Rev. Russell Bigelow, which 
shook his infidelity, but he built himself up in his unbelief. Often in Wooster 
he attended our preaching at night, but not in the day-time. On the second 
Sabbath (11th) of December, 1831, a revival having been in progress some eigiit 
months. Dr. Thomson was sitting in his room at his father's house entirely disen- 
gaged. He heard an inward voice, "Read the Bible." Lifting his eye, it fell 
on the Bible upon a shelf. He opened it at random and read the Epistle of 
James, by which he was at once convinced of the truth of Christianity and of 
that of Methodist doctrine. 

He began to reason : If Christianity is true, it is of all truths the most im- 
portant. I must be a Christian. But I don't know how. What he had read came 
up: "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God." But I am entirely ignorant. 
"He giveth to all men liherallyy But I am a skeptic. I have blasphemed his 
name; I have scoffed at his religicm; I have ridiculed his people; he will s[)uin 
me from his presence. "He giveth to all men liberally, and ujjdraidetJi not." 
How then shall I ask ? "Ask in faith; nothing wavering." Not like a wave, 
advancing and receding from the shore, but like a living stream, flowing on and 
on till it loses itself in the ocean. Then I must attend to all the duties of Chris- 
tianity ; I must join a Church. Which ? My patients are Presbyterians, but I 
don't believe their doctrine. My parents are Calviuistic Baptists. I don't believe 



434 Methodist Bishops. 

theirs. There is a people who make a business of religion ; I'll be a Methodist. 
He then kneeled and prayed until his soul was filled with peace and love. Com- 
ing down stairs he met his mother in the hall, to whom he said, "Mother, I am 
convinced of the truth of Methodism, and I am going to see Mr. Sheldon." She 
expressed great surprise. He came. I luid left for country appointments. When 
I returned my wife said, "An interesting young man called last Sabbath, 
who was very anxious to see you. I told him you would be at home on Friday 
night." 

Just then I heard a modest rap at the front door. In came Dr. Thomson, who 
said, "Mr. S., I have lately become convinced of the truth of Methodism, and I 
wish further acquaintance with it. I understand you have a library; I wish to 
borrow a book." "Do you wish a general or a particular acquaintance?" "I 
wish both a general and particular acquaintance." "Excuse me. I asked merely 
to know what book to recommend. For a general, I recommend Watson's ' Life 
of Wesley.' For a particular, * Watson's Institutes.'" I brought both to him, 
and said, "Please excuse me, as I have a select prayer-meeting to attend now." 
'•Ah," said he, "I'll go with you." On our way to Dr. Shaffer's, who had been 
converted six months before, and in whose parlor we held a weekly prayer- 
meeting to which none were invited but seekers, and a few spiritual Christians, he 
remarked, '* I am perfectly aware of the obloquy which will be cast upon me for 
the step I am about to take; but I am a dying man, and must henceforth live for 
eternity." At the prayer-meeting we met his special friend, Samuel Richey, like 
Thomson a gifted son of genius, who was in pursuit of fame; who had lately 
won important verdicts over accomplished lawyers in doubtful cases; to whom 
Dr. T., on tlie afternoon of his conversion, had written a most admirable letter, 
(a copy of winch he showed me,) on the evidences of Christianity. Both rose for 
prayers. At the close. Dr. T. joined on probation. This was December 16. 
1831. The town was electrified. It was in the mouth of every one, "Edward 
Thomson has joined the Methodists!" 

Thus we see it was after six years of occasional and acknowledged 
conviction, that lie fonglit liis waj through the ranks of unbelief, and 
came ont on the Lord's side. He was of the ripe age of thirty-one, 
ripe in profession, ripe in influence, ripe in social position. 

All these he cast away, i^ay, he must go through a deeper expe- 
rience. He must be rejected of father and mother. His father, a 
deacon in the Presbyterian Church, the morning after he had joined 
the Church, said to him : 

" Edward, my son, why did you join the Methodists ? " 

"Because I believe their doctrines. They are so simple that a 
child can understand them." 



Edwakd Thomson. 435 

" But why did you not join the Presbyterians ? There are no men 
of intelligence among the Methodists." 

''Why, father, among the Presbyterians and Ba23tists we can only 
have a little amen-h ope-so religion, without being enthusiasts. But 
among the Methodists we can have as much as we live for." 

" But you knew," says the father, concluding the debate as most men 
in authority terminate unpleasant and unconquerable arguments, " that it 
would be very much against my feelings, and you must leave my house." 

"Well, father," retorted the young Methodist, but not young 
thinker, " I can go, but you did not refuse me your house when I was 
an infidel, advocating infidel doctrines. I do not know as I am less 
affectionate or respectful." 

" True," said the father, " your spirit is very much improved. But 
you knew it would be very much against my feelings." 

The father, however, did not execute his threat. The Methodist 
minister called on the deacon the next evening, and said, " I consider 
it providential that Edward, with his rich and varied learning, has 
been influenced by the Lord to join the Methodists at the time that we 
are turning our attention to literary institutions : he may yet become 
a Bishop." The father yielded to the doctrine of divine Providence, 
and relented toward his son. 

Three months after his pastor visited the doctor, and gave him an 
account of his own call to the ministry. The youthful convert said, 
" You surprise me ; you have related my feelings precisely. I thought 
I would go to Jefferson College a couple of years, and then, perhaps, 
the Methodists would give me license to preach." " We have a 
better school," said his pastor ; " we call it Brush College." He was 
baptized April 29, 1832, and the next day was licensed to exhort. 
The scene of his baptism was very impressive. A large concourse 
was assembled when the gentle and good physician accepted his vows 
in that public manner. He immediately gave up practice and taught 
school for a living. For six weeks he accompanied his pastor over 
his circuit, and the preaching was addressed to the neophyte oftener 
than to the rest of the congregation. July 1, 1832, he was licensed 
to preach, and recommended to the Annual Conference. 

His first sermon was preached shortly after. It was a two-days' 
meeting where the small, weakly looking young man was " set up " to 
26 



436 Methodist Bishops. 

preach. His friend and pastor speaks of his first sermon in this 
manner : 

His text was, "Thou art my God, and I will praise thee." He preached 
most admirably; but before he was through he was powerfully tempted to think 
(contrary to the fact) that I wished him to stop, and he broke off abruptly. I 
arose, related circumstantially the experience of an intelligent young man, his 
skepticism, his conversion, and subsequent hnppy enjoyments; carefully conceal- 
ing the person until the close, then saying, the last time I saw him was, naming 
the day, house, place, and text of his discourse, and now all who are willing to 
repent of your sins, forsake all, make a full surrender, and go with him to heaven, 
repair with us to the Church, and come to Christ for salvation ! About sixty 
came to the altar as penitents, forty-six of whom joined on jJrobation at 
that meeting. He was eminently useful. We received seven hundred that 
year. 

Edward Thomson was received into Conference on probation the 
twenty-second of September following, (1832,) and appointed junior 
preacher with his old pastor on the I^orwalk Circuit. 

This was the opening of Providence, according to the suggestion 
of his pastor to his father. On this circuit was a seminary, where he 
was to open the educational work of his Church in that State, and in 
all the West, and thus more completely fulfill his prophecy, a few 
years after. His first year was passed on this circuit. His second he 
rose to a city appointment, that of the city of Sandusky, which was 
within the bounds of the circuit. Here he made the acquaintance of 
the Hon. E. Cooke, father of Jay Cooke, Esq., who regularly attended 
his ministry. At that time, writes his predecessor at this appoint- 
ment. Rev. L. B. Gurley, his personal appearance " was so youthful 
and delicate and difiident, that at first sight the sympathy and fears of 
the people were awakened lest he should fail in his attempt to preach, 
but when he opened his lips, apparently without effort, beautiful 
thoughts, clothed in golden words, like coin fresh from the mint, fell 
on the charmed ears of his audience. As to pulpit preparation he 
was careful from the beginning, frequently writing his sermons in full, 
but very seldom using a manuscript in preaching." Mr. Gurley's 
father, a local preacher, who had received his license from Mr. 
Wesley in Ireland, after hearing Mr. Thomson preach, remarked of 
him, " He is a small man, but, mark my word, he will yet become 
a great one." 



Edward Thomson-. 437 

Dr. Thomson's third appointment was in Cincinnati. This was 
partly out of regard to his talents, and partly because he wished to 
pursue his medical studies more thoroughly. He became so much 
disheartened, perhaps because of the partial division of heart, that he 
proposed to leave the ministry. He had w^on the valedictory at the 
medical college, but he had lost the hearts of his people. He blamed 
them when he should have blamed himself. He was persuaded to 
continue in the w^ork by the brother who had first introduced him into 
it, returned to Conference, and was admitted to full connection, and 
stationed on Wooster Circuit at his own request. The next year, 1836, 
he w^as stationed in the city of Detroit. Here he had a wonderful 
year, one that is remembered in that city unto this day. His sermons 
drew crowds, and his popularity was unbounded. Governor Cass 
was among his auditors and admirers. 

While stationed in this city he married, in July, 1836, Miss Maria 
Louisa, daughter of Hon. Mordecai Bartley, member of Congress 
from Ohio, and afterward governor of the State. Of her children, a 
son bearing his own name, and a daughter, are living. 

From this charge, the next year, 1837, he entered on the new 
form of ministerial life for which his first pastor had prophesied that 
he was called to the ministry of his Church. In the town of E'orwalk 
was an abandoned school, of which his Church proceeded to take 
possession. He was called to its principalship. He was deficient in 
some branches of classic learning, but he set himself diligently to 
pursue the curriculum which was to be taught, and so successful 
did he become that it was said in the later years of his presidency 
at Delaware, he could fill any chair that was temporarily vacant. 

Here, too, he began that form of literary labor into which his 
life-work most choicely wrought itself — the religious essay. His 
first effort in this direction was entitled " Close Thought." It stands 
first in his three volumes of essays, Moral, Educational, and Biograph- 
ical. It was republished in England, and won for him a prominent 
name in literary circles, and a leading one in his own denomination. 
This beginning of his strength is a fresh and vivid production, worthy 
still of a place on a minister's or student's table. Thus it starts forth : 

Thought is the foundation of all intellectual excellence. Wliat is it that con- 
stitutes darkness in the individual or the age ? The absence of thought — strong 



438 Methodist Bishops. 

thought. "What is it that has handed down innumerable errors from generation 
to generation ? The want of thought. What is it that entombed the world's 
mind for ages ? The world's fearful experiment to dispense with thought. 
"What was it that burst the chains of religious bondage and gave to Europe moral 
freedom ? What is it that has spread before our vision so many natural truths — 
that has opened so wide the path of discovery — has crowded it with so 
many anxious inquirers, and is preparing the way for the general education of 
the human race ? Thought! 

He shows the outgrowth of a single thought, and the labor neces- 
sary for its ehicidation ; that it is more difficult to set the mind to 
labor than it is the body, and that only as it puts its sweat into its 
work will it produce aught that is permanent and powerful. 

This essay was followed by others less enthusiastic in expression, 
but not less deep or powerful in idea and influence. They cover the 
fleld of popular addresses to scholastic assemblies, including such 
topics as "General Education," "Mental Symmetry," "The Path to 
Success," " The Conflicts of Life," and many other topics. This last 
is a very inspiriting ode to Duty, as ringing and almost as rhythmical 
as Wordsworth's Ode. Here are specimens of its vigor : 

Go to your Congress of Nations. See those two champion statesmen meet in 
fierce and final struggle. A nation's arguments, a nation's feelings, a nation's 
interests crowd upon each aching head and press each throbbing heart! The 
world's wit and wisdom crowd the halls, and beauty, in the glittering gallery, 
"watches the approaching conflict ; the multitudes besiege the doors, and aisles, 
and windows, anxious to witness the scene and herald the issue; the champions 
rise upon the tempest of human passions; they raise storm after storm, and 
throw thunderbolt on thunderbolt at each other; they soar, wing to wing, into 
the loftiest regions; they grapple with each other, soul to soul! Then is the 
purest, deepest, sweetest rapture, save that which comes from heaven! It were 
cheap to buy one draught wdth the crown of empire I 

Difficulties, when overcome, insure honor. What laurels can be gathered 
from the field of sham battle ? No enemy, no glory. The brave man scorns 
the feeble adversary; the greater the foe the more noble the victory. Rome 
gave her best honors to Scipio because he prostrated Hannibal; America honors 
Washington because he drove the giant forces of Britain ; England awards to 
Wellington her highest praises, because he struck down Napoleon, her mightiest 
foe. 

Mark the aged Christian pilgrim as he rises from some fearful conflict in 
holy triumph. Hark! methinks I hear him say, "O, glorious Gospel of the 



Edward Thomsot^. 439 

blessed God! Because tliou dost task all my powers; because thou dost lead me 
to tbe arena; because tliou dost bring me to the mightiest foes — to princi- 
palities and powers, leagued for our destruction; to rulers of darkness, and 
wicked spirits, panting for our everlasting death; to the world and the flesh; 
to earth and to hell, thus making me a spectacle to infernal and heavenly 
worlds; to God the Spirit, God the Son, and God the Father; therefore will 
I glory in thee." Go ask the blood- washed throng if they would erase one 
trial from their history. Ask David, on yon mount of glory, why the angels 
fold their wings, and drop their harps to listen to his story. Would you have 
an honored life, an honored memory, a blessed immortality? Shrink not from 
conflict. 

We measure a man's intellect by his achievements ; we estimate his achieve- 
ments by their difficulties. Think you that honor can come without difiiculty ? 
Try it. Go build baby houses, join mice to a little wagon, play at even and 
odd, and ride on a long pole, and see what laurels the world will award you. 

We will give you the crown of empire. Now go, like Sardanapalus, wrap- 
ping yourself in petticoats, dress wool among a flock of women, and see if 
Honor would not stamp his angry foot, and shake his hoary locks, and spurn 
you from his presence. 

Difficulties give courage. Look at the raw recruit. How timid, how fear- 
ful of the foe, how willing to avoid an engagement! See him on the eve of 
strife; his imagination pictures the smoke and din of battle from afar; the 
plain crimsoned with blood; the piercing cries and gaping wounds of the dying 
and the dead. He longs for the home of his childhood, the embrace of his 
mother, the quiet of peace. But mark the hardy veteran by his side, who 
carries in his body the bullets of the foe, and bears upon his face the marks of 
their sabers. He stands firm ; he thinks only of the image of his country, the 
punishment of the invader, and the laurels of the conqueror, and lies down to 
rest, longing for the reveille that shall wake him to the strife. 

His success as an educator was such that tlie halls were crowded. 
Other institutions began to look toward the humble seminary and its 
petit, but powerful, principal. In 1843 Michigan offered him the 
chancellorship of her University. Transylvania made the offer of her 
presidency. He hesitated, especially as to the proposal from Michi- 
gan. The other college, located in a slave State, was not in a con- 
genial field or atmosphere to his nature, which abhorred that evil, 
and wrought steadfastly against it. He w^as only receiving six 
hundred dollars a year at Norwalk, and these places offered thrice 
and four times that salary. Yet his love for his Church withstood the 
temptation. Ho preferred to work through its channels. 



440 Methodist Bishops. 

The following spring the General Conference elected him editor 
of the " Ladies' Repository." Into this chair he put the same genius 
for writing that he had previously exhibited for speaking. His essays 
were racy, original, and graceful. They touched many themes and 
adorned w^hatsoever they touched. There was a playfulness in them 
which ran into humor, but rarely flashed in wit. They were deep 
without darkness, and fresh without weakness. 

He ruled in this chair only one year, when Ohio Methodism, hav- 
ing outgrown its academic status^ began to put on the gown of a 
University. It, of course, turned its eyes instantly and constantly to 
the pale little editor at its Book Concern in Cincinnati. Allowed 
to carry off the honors of a second election, he was summoned to the 
headship of the Ohio Wesleyan University. He used to say that he 
found, as its only endowment, a debt. But he soon got rid of that 
endowment, and changed its minus quantity into a respectable and 
growing plus. 

He increased its income, buildings, students, and reputation. For 
fifteen years he ruled, the unquestioned master of Western educational 
Methodism, and w^ith no superior in the East. His fame spread far 
and wide. His halls w^ere crowded. Especially were the lectures, 
which he began at I^orwalk, developed into an institution. At three 
o'clock Sunday afternoons, the emptiest hour of the Sabbath in all 
parts of the nation save New England, the pretty town of Delaware 
poured its people of every Church into the chapel of the University. 
The slim, pale, small student occupied the plain platform, while the 
throng crowded every nook and crevice with expectant faces. His 
essays were sermons, and his sermons essays. They lifted up the Gos- 
pel into high places of literature, and made many a skeptic tremble 
before the simple but sublime proclamation. Bent over his manu- 
script, from which he hardly lifted his eyes, wdth slightest gesture, 
with smallest change of tone, he carried his audience captive on the 
wings of deepest thought and deepest feeling. President Edwards, 
in his powerful preaching, seems never to have been matched so com- 
pletely in American pulpit history as by President Thomson. Here 
was pronounced that sublime discourse on the Sublimity of the Script- 
ures ; here other brilliant pulpit poems, that deserve and will obtain 
a long if not an immortal life, burst upon entranced ears. The history 



Edwakd Thomson. 441 

of the college is a history of his work, and its fame centers and 
towers in him. With able coadjutors, it will be -universally acknowl- 
edged that he was its life and glory and power. 

In the course of his presidential duties he visited England for the 
first time since his departure in childhood. It was then that he made 
that visit to his home which has been referred to at the beginning of 
this memoir. He was a loyal American when on his native heath. 
'No more of an American ever trod the streets of London than this 
English-born gentleman. He details a conversation which occurred 
at Portsmouth, which shows how thoroughly he was imbued with our 
national sentiments. To rebuke the charge of boasting, which was 
then more willingly laid against us than it is to-day, he proudly re- 
plies : " As to nobility, it perhaps has never occurred to you that we 
have nobody to make nobles of. We realize Pyrrhus's idea of the 
Pomans — a nation of kings." Then, with all the pomposity he could 
assume, he made his bow, and said : " You are now in the company 
of one of the royal family of the United States of America." This 
conceit was entirely unnatural to him, and therefore was not resented 
by them. This tour resulted in a series of letters, which were 
afterward collected into a volume. 

After a long and splendid service he was called again to the chair 
editorial. This time to a stirring field. Hitherto his career had been 
placid as an English stream. ^Now it was to be stormy as the English 
Channel. The question of slavery, which had been rising and rising 
in vehement debate in every field of Church, State, business, and 
society, was fast getting into battle array. The Church was seeking 
to put itself right in its legislation, and especially in its editorial 
utterances. Its chief journal, located in New York, had not satisfied 
its radical leaders. Though edited with great ability, it seemed to 
these ^Dersons to be giving an uncertain sound in this supreme hour. 
A change of editorship was demanded. Dr. Thomson was put for- 
ward for the place. A fierce fight followed, and he was elected. He 
came where he was not wanted. The Church elite of that city had other 
tastes. I^ot that they loved him less, but their choice allies and writers 
more. They established a rival sheet. They frowned on the meek 
intruder. But he was equal to the exigencies. His editorials were 
graceful, genial, yet faithful and bold ; and, as the war cloud darkened, 



442 Methodist Bishops. 

and its murderous tliiinders roared, tlie strong pen of the editor 
rose to tlie occasion and gave tlie Clinrcli serene and steadfast guid- 
ance amid tlie storm. He won the recalcitrant brethren by his meek- 
ness of wisdom, and conquered the pulpit also. His thoughtful, 
polished discourses were appreciated, and ere he left his chair friend 
and foe acknowledged his swaj. 

But the Church was about to call him to her final honors and 
labors. In 1864, at the General Conference in Bhiladelphia, on the 
first ballot, he was elected bj the next to the highest vote to her 
general superintendency. 

Fortunately for our Church constitution, it contains no provision 
that limits its utmost honors, privileges, and duties, as that of the 
nation unwisely does, to those of native origin. Our executive is 
open to all who are citizens of our spiritual commonwealth. Bishop 
Thomson is a proof of the excellence of this catholicity. Had he 
entered other vocations, with all his marked fitness for leadership he 
could never have attained the supreme honor; and the fact of this 
inability to fully employ his powers would have prevented their 
greatest development. Opportunity stimulates genius. Such oi^por- 
tunity was offered in the Church, but not in the State. We shall 
never see the highest generalship and statesmanship that our foreign- 
born citizens can exhibit until every impediment to their exercise is 
removed by removing that clause which forbids their aspiration to 
the highest honor and duty in the gift of the Bepublic. 

Our Church grants this liberty. Its first three Bishops were 
English-born, though two of them wrought in their life-work before, 
as well as subsequent to, their elevation to the superintendency upon 
American soil. After the lapse of fifty years another of the same 
nativity succeeded them. He proved his fitness not the least by liis 
unswerving devotion to the land of his adoption. No truer American 
ever lived. Still, as became a general ofiicer in a catholic Church, 
which existed equally and ofiicially in every continent, none sur- 
passed him in the fullness of such breadth. He was without partiality 
to any blood, or tongue, or tribe, or nation. All were to him equal 
and fraternal. 

Bishop Thomson immediately began to devote himself to the ard- 
uous labors of his new work. He, first of all our Bishops, visited the 



Edward Thomson. 443 

Asiatic work, thus evincing, at the beginning, his breadth of soul. The 
tour round the world was performed, or rather, attempted, without 
completion, by his co-elected brother. Bishop Kingsley ; for he fell 
with the journey half done, on the borders of the Holy Land, by the 
side of the Great Sea. Bishop Thomson did not essay a journey round 
the world, but he did a more difficult task. For to make the jour- 
ney eastward to China and westward from China, is greater than to 
cross from China to California. This feat he undertook and success- 
fully carried out. He left 'New York August, 1864, witliin three 
months of his election, and completed his tour in the following May. 
His visit to India and China was very encouraging to our missionaries 
and members, and to this day no sweeter name lingers on their 
tongue than that of Bishop Thomson. His journals are animated and 
instructive -transcripts of his experiences and observations in those 
novel climes. His colleague, following soon after, and giving his 
observations also in the form of a book, makes comparisons inevit- 
able between the two. Such comparisons give Thomson tiie prefer- 
ence in finish of style, and Kingsley in a certain piquancy and gayety 
of spirit. Both are fine observers and expert narrators. Both left 
powerful impressions on those ancient lands and faiths. 

On Bishop Thomson's return he planged into the work of tlie 
superintendency with a zeal that was unabated, but that was rapidly 
consuming his slender capital. His wife had died during his editor- 
ship in New York, and he was married. May 9, 1866, to Miss Annie 
E. Howe, an accomplished lady of Delaware, Ohio. She accompanied 
him on a tour to the Pacific coast, and into the Southern States. He 
was the first to organize a Conference with members of the ostracized, 
and, to many eyes yet of the accursed, hue, mingling with their 
white brethren. A photograph was taken of the group, the first 
picture of that sort that was probably ever made on this Continent. 
The city of New Orleans was the seat of this Conference. It will 
yet be prouder of this token of the great change that is passing over 
the South, and of this foregleaming of the rising sun of pure and per- 
fect Christianity, than of any past event that has graced its history. 

For six years he was in labors most abundant. His last literary 
work was the revising of his Oriental letters, the preface to which is 
dated March, 1870. He was then leaving home for the last time. 



44:4 Methodist Bishops. 

He had won for himself high esteem as a president and a preacher ; 
was accessible to all and beloved bj all. His list of spring Confer- 
ences was the unusnally large number of twelve. Of them three had 
been already attended. He was on his way from the West Yirginia 
Conference to the Isew Jersey, when he rested over at AYheeling. 
He arrived here on Thursday morning, March IT. He had had a chill 
the night before, but was not very ill. He kept his room Thursday, 
and on Friday, feeling better, received his friends and walked about 
the city. That day he wrote his last article for the press, which he 
sent to the " Zion's Herald." It may not have all been written that 
day, though its date and that of the note accompanying it was Wheel- 
ing, March 18, 1870. It was a very racy talk entitled " A Walk on the 
Borders of our Zion," and gave a number of amusing incidents of his 
notes and observations in the Lexington, Kentucky, and West Yir- 
ginia Conferences, all of which he had just visited. It closed with 
this striking remark, which was made at a love-feast of the Lexington 
Conference : " Brethren, I am not of this world. Y^e belong to a 
better country ; and I intend, when the bell rings, to have my trunk 
packed ; so I pack a little every day." 

Little did he think as he wrote those words and closed his epistle 
that they were so soon to be fulfilled in him. Did the pain he then 
complained of suffering suggest the fast-rushing agony of dissolution ? 
By morning he was sick enough to acknowledge it, and to seek his 
room and bed. By noon pneumonia set in. During the Sabbath his 
symptoms slightly improved, though debility increased. At mid- 
night a marked change occurred. His own medical training made 
him quick to discern the change, and he asked his physician to tell 
him the truth, saying that he was prepared for any event of God's 
will. He was informed of the probabilities of the speedy termina- 
tion of his life. After a few minutes of solemn silence, he dictated 
messages to his wife, to which, they being written out and read to 
him, he affixed his signature. He then said : '' If this be dying it is 
very easy." A few minutes after, opening his eyes with such an 
expression of tranquillity, the doctor was encouraged to ask him, 
"Have you full peace? " he answered, " O'yes, yes ! " 

In the evening he apj)eared comfortable, but with a very rapid pulse. 
His face w^as bathed, the Twenty-third Psalm was read, and prayers 



Edwakd Thomson. 445 

-svere offered. At about eiglit the pain in liis stomach set in with 
renewed intensity. He saw his hour had come. He was only anxious 
to live nntil his wife could reach him. This she could not do before 
twelve o'clock. But his feeble frame could not last that loni^r. He 
was sorely tried by this disappointment. Looking up at Brotlier 
Logan, he said, " The Master said to Peter, ' Satan hath ' desired to 
have thee that he might sift thee as wheat, but I have prayed for thee 
that thy faith fail not.' " And he repeated, " that thy faith fail not." 
A short time after he said to Dr. Homer J. Clark, " Doctor, pray for 
me, that my faith fail not." Dr. Clark asked, him if he found sup- 
port in this hour, and he replied, " O yes, and that is the best, that is 
the best." He asked him to pray, and he himself responded warmly. 
Almost instantly after, easily and without a struggle, he fell asleep in 
Jesus. 

His body was carried to his beloved city of Delaware, the home 
of his most active, most numerous, and not least famous years, and, 
with much weeping and lamentation, with eulogies from students, 
alumni, professors, and preachers, it was borne to its long home. 
Under the peaceful foliage of its pleasant city of the dead it awaits 
the dawn and the glory and the joy of the resurrection morning. 

Before proceeding to the summing up of this life, it will be proper 
to notice his last work, which did not appear till after his death. It 
w^as a series of discourses entitled, " Evidences of Revealed Eeligion." 
These discourses were pronounced before the schools of theology at 
Boston and Evanston the winter before his death. They are tlie con- 
summate flower of his thoughts. They stand out grandly. '' God " is 
the first theme. He shows that his existence is in debate among mod- 
ern schools of philosophy, and proves against them all a personal, an 
intelligent, a creative, a governing God. His argument against an 
impersonal force developing nature is exceeding fresh and strong. 
How well he puts the anticlimax of the development theorists. If 
men are developed upward, why not downward ? As thus, " Here is 
one who has a fondness for foxes. He admires their characters, 
studies their habits, imitates their ways, so much so, that his friends 
say, ' He is foxy.' His attitudes, his halt, his looks, his practices, all 
resemble those of the fox ; and whenever we see him, either in the 
world or the Church, we are reminded of this scripture, ' Go tell that 



•44:6 Methodist Bishops. 

fox.' It is easy to see that his son may be more of a fox than the father,, 
the grandson than the son ; and so after centuries or eons or millenni- 
ums, if you please, a real fox may be produced. . . . Another man is 
a snake in the grass. He crawls rather than walks, stings rather than 
talks, the poison of asps is under his tongue ; he delights in conceal- 
ment ; he never does any thing directly that he can do indirectly. He 
has no sense of gratitude, but will bite the bosom that warms and pro- 
tects him. Suj)pose his feelings, strengthened in his posterity from 
generation to generation, until they become a generation of vipers — a 
nest of copperheads." 

This theory of degeneration is an apt and unanswerable offset to 
the theory of development. It is the argument of reditctio ad 
ahsurdum admirably applied. The greatest lecture of the course 
next to the first, is that on miracles. This theme is powerfully han- 
dled. He shows that miracles are possible, probable, provable, proved. 
He revels in logical analysis of Strauss and Hume, and well dehvers 
any one who is captured in that snare of the devil, if so be he is not 
held captive by him at his will. Immortality, too, is grandly treated. 
As if he were conscious that it brooded over him, and was soon to 
break upon him. 

Yery strongly put are the arguments for a moral government of 
God, and " Life a Probation." Painfully powerful is his defense of the 
dreadful truth of future punishment, and gloriously grand his out- 
bursts on the necessity and advantages of the Gospel, on "Christ, our 
Prophet, Priest, and King." Superbly does he close the last discourse 
with what should be the closing psalm of the volume : — 

He is a Kiug; and slowly, but steadily, through tlie ages, amid the shock of 
urinies and the ruins of empires, he has been organizing that kingdom whose 
emblem is the woman clothed with the sun, sandaled with tlie moon, and crowned 
with the stars, and whose offspring is worthy to be caught up by God. His prin- 
ciples, destroying all false philosophies, and freeing, rousing, energizing the 
human mind — ins civilization, bridging Niagara, touching mountains, cutting 
asunder continents by canals, and unitijig them l)y lines of lightning l)eneath 
the seas, and links of lire above them — his Churches, bestudding Europe and 
America with radiant points of light — millions of Sabbath-schools, with palm- 
branches and hosannas — missions girding the globe with curtains of truth and 
love, pushing back the belt of error and vice, and opening the way to commerce, 
science, justice, liberty, and good-will — kingdoms and empires opening their 



Edwakd Thomson. 447 

gates to the hosts of GorVs elect, advancing fair as the moon, clear as the sun, 
and terrible as an army with banners, while the drums of divine Providence are 
beating the reveille of the millennium morning — prove that Christ is King. But 
the triumphs that are seen are nothing to those that are not seen, both past and 
future. 

A Sabbath-school superintendent wishing to liave a great commemoration of 
the happ'y Christmas-time, built up tier after tier in the spacious cathedi-al, and 
arranged trees between them, hanging cages of canaries among the fragrant 
branches. Over the cages he suspended blankets. When the time arrived, and 
the children filled the aisles and transept, and the charmed spectators crowded 
the galleries, all at once the blankets were lifted, and the sunlight, the warmth, 
the fragrant trees, woke up the slumbering birds, who broke forth in tuneful 
song, filling the whole space with one wave of delicious music. To complete 
the charm, the children raised their harmonious voices, and gallery on gallery 
swelled the great volume of melody as it ascended in that grand song: ''All 
hail the power of Jesus' name ! '' So Christ is building tier on tier in the temple 
of the heavens, where he is suspending tlie caged birds of melodious voices 
among the invisible groves of the tree of life. Soon will the high day arrive, 
the angel's trumpet sound, and the blankets of the grave be raised, and the 
warmtii and light and beauty of heaven will waken every tuneful power, and 
the assembled angels and archangels will sing with the redeemed and astonished 
saints: "All hail the power of Jesus' name!" filling the whole heaven with 
one volume of unequaled song, great as the voice of many waters and of mighty 
thunderings, harmonious as the concert of ten thousand harps. 

Well might lie rise on this wave of his rapture into that triumphal 
host whose glory he so brilliantly depicted ! 

The subtlety and profundity of his thinking processes sometimes 
resulted in ludicrous blunders. Soon after his lirst marriage he took 
his wife to his parsonage at Detroit. Immersed in " Close Thought," 
even before he WTote his first essay on that subject, and often after- 
ward, he was in the midst of a party who were holding his weddins" 
festival. Suddenly emerging from liis cloud of thought, he dimly 
recognized his friends, and remarked of the lady before him, just 
made his wife, that he believed he had seen her somewhere, but he 
could not recall where. 

On hearing a class in logic, he got so far beyond his pupils and his 
text-book that he took up a large marking-book before him, and, 
supposing it was his hat, spread it over his head, and began to leave the 
room. A shout of laughter from his class recalled him to his senses. 



448 Methodist Bishops. 

One of tlie strangest of tliese mental reversals transpired when a 
t ^ friend had submitted his manuscript to him for inspection. He called 

for his paper. The doctor said he had read it, and approved its publi- 
cation. He looked for it, but could not find it. Pie made due search 
without effect, when, recovering himself, he said he had a desire to 
expectorate at the same time that he intended to put the manuscript 
on the table. Whereupon he had spit on the table, and put the paper 
in the stove. There were the approved ashes before the astonished 
friend, and more astonished critic. This absent-mindedness affected 
him somevdiat in his last official career, and with a slight deafness 
made him crave the seclusion of his college rather than the publicity and 
perpetual whirl of his last office. Yet his calm, clear judgment, his 
quick instincts, his genial nature, made him the beloved angel of the 
Church, and his official visits were looked forward to with increasing 
pleasure. 

His character and career need no summing up. They are patent 
to every one. " An Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile," 
will be the universal testimony of every friend and acquaintance. He 
was the John of the apostles, the seer and sayer of the severest truths. 
He had found the Grail which others have so vainly sought. 

"His strength was as the strength often, 
Because his heart was pure." 

He has left the inspiration of a sweet and noble life for the delight 
and strength of his Church, and his successors in the ministry of 
reconciliation. May their hearts be the sensitive-plate that shall catch 
that sacred impression, and their lives evince not merely its external 
impression, but its inward power, for their illumination and edification ! 



Calvin Kingsley. 



BY KEY. WM. HUNTER, D.D. 



IN the year 1836 there came to Alleghany College a yonng man 
about twenty-four years of age, robust of build, fresh from a Yery 
rural district, clad in rustic attire — a roundabout, coarse, low shoes, 
blue stockings, and pantaloons all too short for him — awkward and 
"green looking," yet with something pleasing in his countenance, a 
genial twinkle of the eye, that bespoke good nature, and a gleaming 
out of common sense that soon made him a general favorite. That 
young man was destined, in time, to outstrip all his compeers who 
might have been tempted, on his first appearance in college halls, to 
smile at his crude exterior, or verdancy of manners. His name was 
Calyin Kingsley, the ardent and persevering student, the accom- 
plished and successful preceptor, the faithful and zealous preacher, the 
skillful and indomitable polemic, the talented and influential editor, 
the instructive and popular letter-writer, the enterprising and self- 
sacrificing Bishop, who was the first in the discharge of his episcopal 
functions to attempt the circumnavigation of the globe. 

He was born in Annsville, Oneida County, N. Y., in 1812. His 
parents, originally from Connecticut, were honest and pious people, 
of limited fortune and moderate culture. The name of their first- 
born son has been supposed to indicate their theological proclivities, 
which supposition, however, we learn, is a mistake, so far, at least, as 
his father was concerned, though at the time of his birth, and for 
eighteen years afterward, his parents were not members of any Church. 
Indeed, Calvin seems to have led the way in the conversion of the 
family. Strange to say, though born in Oneida County, N. Y., he 
never came in contact with that well-nigh ubiquitous people, the 
Methodists, until after the family removed to Ellington, Chautauqua 
County, in 1826. Calvin was then fourteen. The form and spirit of 
devotional exercises among the Methodists was sometliing new to young 
Kingsley, and impressed him deeply. He had always been a thoughtful 



452 * Methodist Bishops. 

and conscientious boy, fully persuaded of tlie necessity of a moral 
cliange wrought, by the Spirit of God. But he had known nothing 
of the hopefulness and joyfulness of spirit which he perceived among 
the Methodists. This new presentation of i*eligion was startling, but 
not uncongeniaL The clear, happy experiences of the Methodists, 
their ardent prayers, their emotional singing, commended them to his 
head and heart. After mature deliberation he united with the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, resolv^ed on a higher Christian life. He was 
then about eighteen years of age. 

As an illustration of his character, which shone out even at that 
early day, the fact should be mentioned that soon after his conversion 
he was impressed w4th the conviction that he ought to conduct family 
worship in his father's house. He consulted his ^^arents, and with 
their consent established the family altar, leading the devotions morn- 
ing and evening. This proceeding of the youth indicated the consci- 
entiousness and faithfulness to duty which always distinguished the 
man in after life. It exhibited the cross-bearing and self-denying spirit 
which was ever one of his characteristics. It was not long before such 
an example of piety and fidelity had its natural effect on his father's 
household. His parents soon sought, and found for themselves, the 
comforts of experimental religion ; and in the course of time the 
whole family followed in their footsteps. One or two of his brothers 
became ministers of the Gospel. 

Like many another youth, from the time of his conversion his 
soul was athirst for knowledge. As the years passed on, and he heard 
of AUeghany College, then just established under Methodist auspices, 
he longed to go there ; but how to perform that which he would, he 
found not. Being the oldest son, he was greatly needed on his father's 
fann. For two years after the family came into Chautauqua County, 
there had been no schools in the neighborhood. His father, however, 
had taken an active part in the establishment of one. Here Calvin 
went to school three months in the winter, working on the farm the 
other nine months of the year. Thus three years were spent, and 
such was his progress in learning that the trustees employed him to 
teach the school for two successive winters. Teaching is itself an 
excellent schoolmaster, and he availed himself of its benefits not 
merely in the way of direct mental culture, but also in procuring 



Calvin Kingsley. 453 

the means of greater knowledge, in the form of books. He had 
before this obtained a few books besides those of the school-room. 
The Urst installment of these was gotten by working, on shares, a 
sugar place of one of the neighbors. The product could not have 
been very great, as it is said that he carried it ten miles on his shoul- 
ders to Jamestown, where he bartered it off for the coveted books. 
These he studied with the eagerness and enjoyment of a mind panting 
for knowledge. His chief time for study w^as at night. It was long 
before the days of carbon oil ; and even tallow candles were a rare 
luxury. But the *' fat pine," with its resinous knots, w^as plenty. 
This made a pretty good light, with an abundance of black smoke. 
It w\as thus that Calvin Kingsley, often while the family was asleep, 
sought an education under difficulties. In the course of time, both 
to improve his education and to assist his father, he taught a school 
through the year at Randolph, Cattaraugus County, devoting his earn- 
ings chiefly to clearing the land of the farm. His opportunities of 
study were then better, but, like many another ambitious youth, he 
paid too dearly for them. By the cessation of active outdoor labor, 
and too intense devotion to teaching and books, he injured his health. 
After nearly two years spent in this way he was compelled to desist 
from teaching. [N'evertheless, after a few months' rest and healthful 
recreation on the farm, he was able again, in somewhat improved 
health, to resume his duties in the school-room. With a portion 
of the avails of his last winter's teaching he sought the halls of 
Alleghany College. 

Prior to this time Calvin had become acquainted with Rev. Hiram 
Kinsley, the Presiding Elder of the district, and long a leading mem- 
ber of the Erie Conference. This good man had strongly encouraged 
the young school-master to seek a collegiate education. But for the 
encouragement thus received he might never have deemed it possible 
to acquire a college course ; and he always expressed himself in 
the strongest terms of gratitude concerning Elder Kinsley, for the 
invaluable service thus rendered him. This was not unfrequently 
accompanied with a regret that other ministers did not always pursue 
the same course with young men. 

Rev. Samuel Gregg, author of the " History of Methodism in the 
Erie Conference," then stationed in Jamestown, also rendered him 
27 



454 Methodist Bishops. 

important help. One Saturday evening yonng Kingsley made his 
appearance at the parsonage door, with a bundle shmg over his shoul- 
der on a stick. He was then on his w^ay to college, sixty miles dis- 
tant, and had called to consult Mr. Gregg on the subject. It was at a 
time of the year when the roads through the then comparatively wil- 
derness country between Jamestowm and Meadville were exceedingly 
bad. There was no public conveyance but by the round-about way of 
Erie. Mr. Gregg suggested that route. But this would cost $10 or 
$12, and he had only $20 in his pocket. He had no notion of spend- 
ing half his fortune in getting to college by public conveyance, when 
he had a pair of stout legs that would carry him for a trifle. Bemain- 
ing, by invitation, with Mr. Gregg over Sunday, it was found on Mon- 
day morning that there were three other young men who wished to 
go to college. The four hired a farmer for a reasonable sum of money 
to take them and their baggage in a farm wagon. 

Arriving at Meadville he presented a note from Mr. Gregg to the 
president of the college, and stated his case — that he was 230or, had 
only a few dollars, but was able and willing to work a part of the 
time at any thing he could get to do. The kind-hearted president 
spoke words of comfort, and in order to help him j)roposed the jani- 
torship ; that is, to sweep the rooms, make the fires, ring the bell, and 
have a general care of the college building. He was thus at once 
inducted into office, and became what he afterward playfully called 
Professor of Dust and Ashes. But the proceeds of this useful, 
though not very dignified, office, were meager and insufficient, and he 
supplemented it by any other w^ork that he could get to do — sometimes 
taking a contract of wood-chopping or wood-sawing, and sometimes 
cultivating potatoes on a corner of the college grounds. Twice dur- 
ing his course he was compelled to retire and teach for awhile, in 
order to replenish his exhausted exchequer. 

His tastes as a student inclined him to mathematics and the related 
sciences, rather than to classical studies. He entered into the study 
of mathematics w^th great zest. Geometry especially interested him 
wonderfully ; he seemed amused and delighted with it. As its truths 
and methods of reasoning unfolded themselves to his mind, he found 
in them the highest enjoyment. His mind, however, by no means 
grasped the subject like Isaac Kewton's, as if by intuition. On the 



Calvin Kingsley. 455 

contrary, it required from him patient study; but lie gave it all it did 
require, and by somewhat slow degrees mastered it, so as to make it 
thoroughly his own. This it was that furnished the discipline he 
needed to develop and strengthen his mental powers. It constituted 
the very basis of his education ; and whatever of logical method and 
dialectic skill he subsequently evinced — and that was no little — seemed 
the result and natural outgrowth of his training in the exact sciences. 
At the end of five years he had worked his way through the scientific 
course, and graduated with honor. This year, 1841, was an eventful 
one in his history. He graduated, w^as elected assistant professor 
of mathematics, and married. His wife, whose maiden name was 
Delia Scudder, a most excellent and devoted Christian woman, cheered 
the remainder of his life's pathway, and now deeply mourns him 
departed. lu 1842 he was elected Professor of Mathematics and 
Civil Engineering in Alleghany College, a chair previously filled by a 
distinguished graduate of West Point, but which lost none of its dig- 
nity by Prof. Kingsley's occupancy. In this position he developed 
remarkable ability and large resources, giving eminent satisfaction. 
He possessed a remarkable faculty of elucidation, and rarely failed to 
make difficult problems plain to the dullest understanding. In his 
relations with his pupils he was just and genial, and his memory is 
now cherished by them as that of a faithful friend. His bearing 
toward his colleagues in the Faculty was highly honorable and consid- 
erate. He cared scrupulously for the interests of all with whom he 
was associated, whether in professional or social life. 

Professor Kingsley was not long undisturbed in his chair. In 
1843 the State, which had for a number of years made appropriations 
to the colleges within its bounds, withdrew its subsidies, and Alleghany 
College, having no endowment, was compelled to suspend. A plan 
of endowment, called the Cheap Scholarship Plan, was devised by the 
President, Dr. Homer J. Clark ; and Prof. Kingsley, with Dr. Clark 
and others, was employed as an agent. He spent one year in this 
work, and the next year was appointed to the charge of Erie Station. 
He was re-appointed to this station the following year, I ut before it 
expired, the college re-opened and he returned to his professorship. 
His pastorate was very satisfactory, both to himself and his parish- 
ioners. He would have preferred to remain in the pastoral work, 



456 Methodist Bishops. 

and had actually resigned his chair ; but the college conld not spare 
him, and the authorities had declined to accept his resignation. At 
great j)ersonal sacrifice and self-denial he went back to the college, 
warmly welcomed by his old friends and associates, and entered at 
once upon his professional duties. This was in the spring of 1846. 
In 1854 he attained to the honor of the vice-presidency of the college. 
During the last two or three years of his connection with the institu- 
tion he was again employed as an agent for the establishment of a 
biblical professorship. In this work he labored hard, as usual, on light 
pay, but had the satisfaction of a reasonable measure of success. 

In the year 1843, when acting as an agent for Alleghany College, 
he had occasion to step forth in defense of the Church against one of 
the strongest men of the day, a leader in what was called the " Wes- 
leyan" Secession. The "logical Lee," as the elder Dr. Bond called 
him, seems to have been over-matched by the logical Kingsley. The 
debate lasted for several days at Portland, New York, and was renewed 
again three months subsequently at Jamestown, where it continued 
four and a half days. Several disputants took part on either side, but 
Kingsley wound up the contest in a speech which has been described 
as masterly and overpowering. Rev. Thomas Graham, who participated 
in the discussion, speaking of that closing speech, says : " It was one 
of the most eloquent and entrancing appeals I ever heard in my life. 
He held that congregation more perfectly spell-bound for half an hour 
than they had ever been held before. Rev. J. J. Steadman (who liad 
also taken part, and was himself a most accomplished debater) was per- 
fectly carried away with the power of the man on that occasion, and 
particularly with his last effort. He and I rode home together in the 
sapie carriage. Two or three times Steadman wonld cease talking, 
and after awhile, starting up from his meditations, wonld whip up his 
horse, shouting, ^ Glory to God ! wasn't Kingsley eloquent ! ' There 
could not have been a happier effort. When I think of it now, (though 
it was over thirty years ago,) I am thrilled with something of the same 
feeling which inspired me then. This was the first great debate the 
Bishop had ever been in. At first he did not seem to be perfectly at 
home. But after one day's ^^ractice he came up well, and proved him- 
self a giant." 

It was at Erie the next year, 1844, in which he had his great debate 



Calvin Kingsley. 457 

on Universalism, lasting for eight days. That city had for some time 
enjoyed the ministry of a champion of the Universalist faith, who, 
hke Gohath of Gath, was in the habit of challenging all the hosts of 
the orthodox to single combat. He had even sent in a challenge to 
the Conference that sat there that year. But, of course, no attention 
was paid to it. After Kingsley went to the charge he accepted the 
challenge. Considering the reputed ability of his opponent, and liis 
own comparative youth, there was some tremor for the result among 
the adherents of " orthodoxy." But their fears were groundless. In 
an eight days' discussion Kingsley ably defended the common faith, 
and showed himself a workman that needed not to be ashamed. Grati- 
fying acknowledgments came from other denominations for the service 
rendered to the common cause."^ 

After his -return to Meadville, in 1845, by invitation from gentle- 
men of different Churches he delivered a series of lectures on the 
distinctive features of Unitarianism, defending with masterly ability 
the great truths of the orthodox faith. These lectures, which were 
listened to by the great mass of the people, were productive of much 
good. They are yet in manuscript, and it is thought by those 
acquainted with them, that if brought out in book form they would 
prove a valuable addition to our theological literature. ]^or should 
we here forget the masterly and valuable contribution to the same — 
his work on " The Resurrection " — a review of Prof. Bush, and issued 
by our own Publishing House. 

Professor Kingsley's first appearance in the General Conference was 
in 1852, in Boston. He then led his delegation, and in the election for 
Bishops received forty votes for that office. Considering his compar- 
ative youth, and that this was the first General Conference of which 
he was a member, this vote was highly complimentary. He was again 
at the head of his delegation at Indianapolis in 1856. Owing to an 
attack of sickness, he took but little part in the business of the Con- 
ference. Nevertheless, before the close, he was elected editor of the 
''Western Christian Advocate," then, as still, one of the leading Church 
papers. In 1860 he was once more in the lead of his delegation at the 

* So serious were the effects, physically, upon his opponent, that shortly after the debate 
closed he lost his voice entirely ; and whether he ever recovered it the writer is not in- 
formed. The fact was generally attributed to over-excitement of the nervous system. 



458 Methodist Bishops. 

Buffalo General Conference, and was elected chairman of tlie Committee 
on Slavery, then the most responsible chairmanship in the body. The 
question of slavery was the great question in both Church and State. 
During the session of that Conference, the Eepublican Convention 
which nominated Abraham Lincoln for the presidency, sat in Chicago. 
The agitation had been increasing in the Church for many years, and 
was now approaching a culmination. Already one separation (that of 
the Church South) and one secession (that of the Wesleyans, so-called) 
had taken place ; and another disruption was threatened. The country 
was on the eve of a tremendous civil war, into which it was precip- 
itated in less than a year from that time. The members from what 
was called " the Border " were deeply impressed with the dangers of 
the period ; and though, with few exceptions, true antislavery men, 
they naturally dreaded and opposed any change in the disciplinary 
enactments concerning slavery. They feared that the chief effect of 
any change would be to hasten the impending crisis of civil secession, 
and another division of the Church. On the other hand, the majority 
of the ISTorthern men were, from their circumstances, naturally impa- 
tient for an advance ; and the dangers apprehended by " the border 
men " seemed to them in a great degree imaginary. '' Pass the new 
rule," said one of the leaders, " and all w^ill be quiet on the border in 
three months ! " 

It will thus be seen that Dr. Kingsley, as chairman of the com- 
mittee on' slavery, occupied a most delicate, responsible, and difficult 
position. He was himself an honest, consistent, and unfaltering, but 
by no means an ultra, antislavery man. It is doubtful if he ever 
accepted, without qualification, the fundamental dogma of abolition- 
ism, that " slavery is a sin under all circumstances." But he was an 
earnest hater of the "peculiar institution," and believed that the 
Church should take advanced ground on the subject. That he was 
equal to the occasion may be inferred from the fact that he acquitted 
himself to the entire satisfaction, and we may say to the admiration, 
of those who were on his side of the question, and caused as little 
complaint as could be expected from the opposition. He brought 
in a very elaborate report, a part of which was a change of " the 
general rule" on slavery, (requiring a two-thirds vote,) which was 
not adopted; and a "new chapter," (requiring only a majority 



Calvin Kingsley. 459 

vote,) wliich was adopted, and remains in the Discipline to this day. 
(See Discipline.) 

Dr. Kingslej was, at this Conference, again elected editor of the 
" Western Cliristian Advocate." This term of service covered nearly 
the entire period of the war, during wliich it was no light task to 
conduct wisely and well a great weekly religious sheet. Partisan 
feeling ran high in the Church and tlie nation. Suffice it to say, that 
it would be difficult to imagine how any one could have done better, 
under the circumstances, than did Dr. Kingsley. He was intensely 
loyal to his country and his God — prudent, clear-sighted, and vigilant. 
His editorials w^ere marked by sound judgment and discretion ; lucid, 
rather than brilliant, and commanding general respect. In 1864: Dr. 
Kingsley was elected the fourth time to the General Conference. It 
sat in Philadelphia. He was now, as always before, placed at the 
head of his delegation, a proof that he w^as a great favorite with his 
own Conference (Erie). His influence in that body w^as commanding. 
He was not a great or frequent talker on the Conference floor ; but a 
few j)leasant words from him would often tide over a difficult point. 
At this General Conference of 1864 he was elected to the office of 
Bishop. Bisho]3S Clark and Thomson were elected at the same time, 
all of them, alas ! to fall in death in the quadrennium next succeeding 
that in wliich they were elected. Calvin Kingsley, the whilom rustic 
youth from the woods of Chautauqua, had now, in less than three 
decades after his debut at Alleghany College, attained to the highest 
office, honors, and responsibilities of the Church ! How well he dis- 
charged his high functions is known to the body, which still mourns 
his unexpected, and to mortal eyes untimely, removal. 

At the next session after his election his old Conference invited 
him to make his residence among them ; and his friends took measures 
to procure him a pleasant home in Cleveland. His family resided 
there until his departure on his great episcopal tour around the world. 

'' The episcopal career of Bishop Kingsley," says Dr. (now Bishoj^j 
Wiley : 

was sh(u-t, but brilliant; it was characterized throughout by the most unreserved 
consecration and the most unwearied devotion. He recognized the magnitude of 
his office, the full weight of its responsibilities, the almost world-wide extent of 
its supervision, and gave himself wholly to it. During his episcopate of six 



460 Methodist Bishops. 

years, his labors were constant, and his journeyings aUnost unremitting. Though 
he fell before he had quite consummated his great tour around the world, yet in 
his various episcopal visitations he had, in distance, more than circumnavigated 
the globe. 

Our limits will not allow us to follow him fully in his visitations 
to the several Conferences, nor to dwell on his labors in connection 
with them. As a specimen, however, of his travels and toils, we 
quote, from his memoir by Dr. Wiley, the following abridged sketch 
of his work during the few years ensuing his election : 

In the year 1865 the supervision of the Conferences beyond the Rocky 
Mountains was assigned to him. In the early part of May lie left Cleveland for 
Idaho and California, by the overland route. He attended the Colorado Con- 
ference at Denver, from June 22 to 26. Finding it impossible to reach Cali- 
fornia by this route on account of an Indian outbreak, he hastened back to 
the East, reaching Cleveland July 12, and almost immediately left for New 
York, whence he embarked by the Panama route on Saturday, July 22, and 
reached San Francisco August 11. He hastened to Virginia City to meet the 
Nevada Conference on the 7th of September. He returned to San Francisco, 
and met the California Conference September 20. On October 3 he sailed from 
San Francisco and reached New York October 26. His prompt return from 
Colorado, where his way was blocked up by the Indians, and his voyage by 
sea to reach his appointments, was an illustration of the indomitable purpose 
and indefatigable energy of the man. 

In 1866 the visitation of the Pacific Conferences was assigned to Bisliop 
Baker, who started on his journey by the overland route. He was overtaken 
in this tour by a stroke of paralysis from which he never recovered. Bishop 
Kingsley, with his accustomed heroism, sprang into the breach. He sailed 
from New York in July and reached San Francisco on the 15th of August. 
He met the California Conference on the 19th, at San Jose, and the Nevada 
Conference on the 5th of September, at Washoe. Not being able to reach 
the Oregon Conference in time, he returned to New York by sea, reaching that 
city October 21. 

In 1867 the supervision of the European Mission Conferences fell to his lot. 
But before leaving for Europe he presided over the Baltimore, East Baltimore, 
and New Hampshire Conferences, and after his return, over the Holston and 
Oneida. He left New York May 5, and reached Ireland on the 26th. He 
attended the German and Switzerland Mission Conference June 20, and 
visited the Scandinavian Missions in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. He 
sailed from Bremen August 26, and reached New York September 7. In 1868 
he presided over the following Conferences : Central German, Erie, Genesee, 
Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, and Wyoming. 



Calvin Kingsley. 461 

This was also the year of the General Conference in Chicago, in 
which, of course, lie took part. As this year furnished him the only 
opportunity of presiding over his own original Conference, it will be 
interesting to know how he dej^orted himself there. 

We pause a moment here to relate some things which his brethren 
and companions report concerning him ; and all the more readily, as 
they give a true representation of the man. Such as he was in the 
chair of the Erie Conference he was elsewhere. One of his brethren 
(Prof. L. D. Williams) says of him, that he wore his honors with 
graceful modesty, nor seemed for a moment to think he was greater 
than his brethren because he was a Bishop. He was called to this 
work to serve the Church, not to aggrandize himself. In the chair of 
the Erie Conference he evidently felt the delicacy and difficulty of the 
situation. Here were men who were strong when he was a boy — 
men who had taken him by the hand and guided his footsteps when 
his way seemed dark, and had counseled and encouraged him in the 
day of need. The Conference was large, embracing men of talent, 
learning, and influence. These men he was about to assign to their 
fields of labor, and it devolved on him to preside over their delibera- 
tions. But he was the same Brother Kingsley as aforetime, when he 
met with them and mingled in their discussions. 

As not unfrequently happens, the regular Conference business 
proceeded faster than the work in the Cabinet. On the last day of 
the session there were some cases that still hung in suspense, and but 
little time remained to perfect the work. The Conference was to 
adjourn at the close of the forenoon session. The Bishop and Pre- 
siding Elders retired to their council-room, and left the Conference 
to finish up the business while they completed the list of appoint- 
ments. In the Conference the committees reported, the usual resolu- 
tions of thanks were passed to citizens, editors, pastors, etc., and 
nothing now remained but to receive the appointments and adjourn. 
The Bishop and his council s.till lingered. A member arose and 
pleasantly moved that a committee be appointed to wait on the 
Bishop and inform him that the Conference had finished its business 
and was ready to receive any communication he had to make. The 
motion prevailed, and the mover was appointed a committee of one 
to perform the service. He repaired to the council-room, and dis- 



462 Methodist Bishops. 

charged tlie duty assigned him with all due formality. The Bishop, 
who always enjoyed a bit of pleasantry, and often contributed his part 
in producing it, looked up from his table with a genial smile and his 
own peculiar twinkle of the eye, which all knew how to interpret, and 
said : '' Please tell the brethren that they might, perhaps, profitably 
spend a little time in telling their religious exj^erience." 

But the appointments were soon ready, and he entered the Confer- 
ence. As usual, he prefaced the reading of them with a brief address, 
wliich no one present will ever forget. He reminded them of his pecul- 
iar relation to them, as having grown up among them and been one of 
them. He felt that he was one of them still. Some had been 
fathers to him, and all were brothers. In assigning them their work 
for the year, with the aid and counsel of his advisers, he felt that the 
task was a delicate and responsible one. But he trusted that his 
brethren knew him too well to indulge the thought, for a moment, 
that he could be influenced by any other than the most sincere desire 
to do the best possible thing for all concerned. He was not vested 
with authority to lord it over God's heritage. If he suspected that 
he had a drop of the kind of blood in his veins that would prompt 
to such ambition, he would " call in a doctor and be bled." 

The year 1869 is the memorable epoch of Bishop Kingsley's life, 
and was destined to be the last full year of his pilgrimage and war- 
fare. The General Conference of 1868 had clothed the mission Con- 
ferences in Europe, Asia, and Africa with full Conference powers, 
and ordered an Episcopal visitation. At the meeting of the Bishops 
the question arose, who will go for us ? Thomson, the saintly and 
heroic, who had previously visited the Missions in Europe, India, and 
China, volunteered, and the work was assigned him. But, for some 
reason, the question was reconsidered. Bishop Ivingsley willingly 
offered himself, and the honorable task was given to him. 

He first met the Troy Conference, April 14, and then began his 
preparations for the great tour. He. left Cincinnati on the 10th of 
May, in vigorous health, hopeful in spirit, and full of determined pur- 
pose to fulfill his mission at whatever cost of labor, strength, or even 
of life itself. His wife and one of his daughters accompanied him to 
California by the new Pacific Pailroad. He attended the Colorado, 
the Oregon, the Is^evada, and the California Conferences, and sailed 



Calvin Kingsley. 463 

from San Francisco, on the 8th of September, for China. He visited 
Japan on the way, and reached China early in October. He visited 
Shanghai, Peking, and other northern cities. In November he reached 
Foochow, our oldest and most flourishing China Mission. On 
Tuesday, the 16th, he opened the meeting or Conference of the China 
Mission. It had been intended at this meeting to organize the Mis- 
sion into a Conference with full powers, which the Bishop was 
authorized to do. But, after a more perfect understanding of the 
case, this matter was postponed. He did, however, after much 
thought and prayer, and with the full consent of the missionaries, 
ordain seven of the licensed native preachers to the oflice of deacon, 
and four of this number, also, to the order of elder. These were- 
the first ordained men of the native Methodist Episcopal Church in 
China. 

The ordination scene was very solemn and impressive. One of 
the missionaries first delivered an appropriate sermon. The Bishop 
then ordained them deacons according to the usual forms. In the 
evening of the same day the four candidates for elders' orders were 
ordained. The Methodist missionaries and two American Pres- 
byterian missionaries participated in the service, joining with ihe 
Bishop in the imposition of hands. The ordination formula was 
translated in each case by the senior missionary. Dr. Maclay. The 
ordination was followed by the celebration of the Lord's Supper, at 
which foreign Christians, American and English, partook, as did a 
large number of the Chinese. The newly ordained elders and dea- 
cons assisted in the administration of the Supper on this memorable 
occasion. The body of the native preachers and helpers met on next 
morning (Monday) and received their appointments for the coming 
year. It is fitting that the names of these seven, the first ordained 
of the native Methodist Episcopal Church, should be here recorded. 
They were : Elders, Hu Po Mi, Hu Yong Mi, Ling Ching Ting, Sia 
Sek Ong ; Deacons, Yek Ing Kwang, Li Yu Mi, Hu Sing Mi. 

To show the appreciation of Bishop Ivingsley by the Chinese 
brethren, we may mention a remarkable scene which occurred at a 
prayer-meeting subsequent to the ordination : 

Five of the ordained men, the others having gone away, witliout any notice 
or warning, walked into the room, each conveying a valuable present consisting 



464 Methodist Bishops. 

of Japan or Foochow lacquered boxes of superior workmanship, and a beautiful 
fan, an indispensable article in China, which some one afterward suggested was 
intended for Mrs. Kingsley. On these tlie names of the donors were neatly in- 
scribed. Without a word they placed these articles on the center table and 
remained standing near it. The senior missionary. Dr. Maclay, addressed the 
Bishop, who arose, while Dr. Maclay expressed to him the esteem in which he 
was held by the brethren. The fraternal salutations and farewells of the ordained 
men were then presented. The Bishop replied in a brief speech, (winch was 
translated.) in wliich he thanked them for the beautiful tokens of friendship 
wliich he valued highly, and would show to his friends in America. He also 
expressed his great pleasure in having met them, and his satisfaction with their 
cliaracter as Christian ministers. 

Soon after one of the missionaries approached him with a heavy volume con- 
taining fifty or sixty large and superior photographic views of Foochow and 
the adjacent scenery, which he presented in the name of the Methodist mission- 
aries. He read a short, well-worded address, ^Yhich set forth their gratitude for 
his official services, and their sense of the profit which they and their families 
had derived from his visit, with their best wishes for his happiness, etc. The 
Bishop was taken by surprise, and remarked that he could not make a lengthy 
speecli, but would imitate the example of President Grant on similar occasions, 
and say from his heart, "• I thank you." 

Having completed the second stage of Lis great journey, Bishop 
Kingsley left Foochow November 26, and reached Hongkong on 
the 29th. He sailed the next morning for Calcutta, reaching Singa- 
pore December 6. On the 14th he touched and went ashore for a 
few hours at Boint de Galle, on the south-west coast of Ceylon. He 
reached Madras on the 18th. The vessel entered the river Hoogly, 
one of the mouths of the Ganges, on the 21st, and on the 22d reached 
Calcutta, where the Bishop remained only two days. 

A journey of eight hundred miles through the interior provinces, 
including a visit to Benares, the sacred city of the Hindus, brought 
him to Lucknow, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Oudh. Here 
he arrived on the 29th of December in excellent health and spirits, 
and anxious at once to acquaint himself with the working of our 
missions in India. On January 20, 1870, he opened the sixth an- 
nual session of the India Mission Conference at Bareilly. Fifteen 
Americans and four natives answered to their names. All the wives 
and children of the missionaries were also present. On the Sabbath 
the Bishop ordained five deacons, (natives,) three of them local minis- 



Calvin Kingsley. 465 

ters, and two native elders. The Conference closed on the 27tli, and 
the Bishop hastened on his journey. 

His face was now turned homeward, and we trace him by his 
letters, in the Arabian Sea on February 10 ; in the Gulf of Aden, 
February 20 ; in the Ked Sea, February 23, arriving at Cairo Marcli 1. 
He turned aside to visit the pyramids, and on the 4tli of March was 
in i^lexandria. His visit to tlie Holy Land was a detour for his own 
gratification. His great episcopal tour still embraced the missions in 
Bulgaria, the presidency of the Germany and Switzerland Conference, 
at Carlsruhe, May 26 ; a visit to Switzerland, and to the Irisli and 
British Conferences, to which he was a fraternal delegate from the 
Church in this country. After this still he was to visit the missions 
in IN^orway, Denmark, and Sweden. He was expected to return home 
early in September. The tour was substantially the same as tliat 
which Bishop Harris afterward made. 

He sailed from Alexandria for Jaffa (Joppa) on the 6th of March. 
He was now w^ithin one month of the end of liis earthly pilgrimage, 
and our principal means of tracing his footsteps is by his letters to his 
family and friends, and those of two of his traveling companions. 
Dr. Bannister, and Miss Frances E. Willard. Every word of these 
letters is precious. In a letter dated at Jerusalem, March 15, he 
writes : 

This trip to Jerusalem is vastly more fatiguing than I had any idea of. If I 
had known beforehand how hard it would be, I should not have engaged in it. 
The day I got here I was more nearly tired to death than ever before in my life. 
There is no way but to come on horseback, and being unaccustomed to ride in 
that way, and having a miserable horse and worse saddle and bridle, it altogether 
nearly killed me. . . . After about ten miles from Joppa, we climbed mountains 
all the way to Jerusalem, which is itself on the mountains. 

Since I have been here I have visited the temple of Solomon, or what was 
once the temple; the tower and the tomb of David; the tombs of Absalom, 
Jehoshaphat, and Hezekiah ; have been to the top of tlie mount of Olives; at 
the garden of Gethsemane; at Bethany, where Lazarus, Mary, and Martha, lived; 
tlirough the valleys of Jehoshaphat, Kedron, and Gelienna; into the upper room 
where the sacrament was instituted ; into the place where Christ was scourged, 
into the place where judgment was pronounced against him by Pilate ; at the place 
where he was crucified, and into tlie sepulcher where he was buried; have seen 
where he wept over Jerusalem, and where he ascended to heaven. Day before 
yesterday I went to Bethlehem, where Christ was born; saw the manger where 



466 Methodist Bishops. 

he was laid ; saw the tomb of Rachel, and the place where Elijah hid himself 
from Jezebel. 

Again lie wrote on tlie 16tli: 

I have been into the temple of Solomon as it now is; that is, into the mosque 
of Omar, wliich stands on the site of tlie old temple. Every thing in Jerusalem 
has been destroj^ed about twenty times in tlie wars that have swept over the place. 
It is dry and hot here now, and the country around Jerusalem for many miles is 
very barren, being all covered over with rocks. Jerusalem is all stone. The 
walls, flocn-s, stairs, roofs of houses, every thing is made of stone. It would be 
impossible to burn the city with fire. 

Bisliop Kingsley was in Jerusalem about eiglit days. There lie 
met, as he expected, Dr. Bannister and a number of other Americans, 
among whom was Miss Willard, of Chicago, whom he had previously 
met at Suez, on his way to Egypt. But w^e must let Miss Willard, in 
her own beautiful and affecting language, as she writes to Mrs. Kings- 
ley, relate the principal scenes of his few last days : 

On the evening of February 28th, arriving at Suez from Cairo, I met the 
Bishop, who had just come from India, and who told me, in his kind and cordial 
manner, upon being introduced, that he had heard Mrs. Kingsley speak of me. 
How well he looked— the picture of health — and with that well-known twinkle in 
his eye, that no one who ever saw him could fail to recall ! He inquired anxiously 
for Dr. Bannister, and seemed much pleased by the prospect of meeting him at 
Jerusalem. And there we all met a few days later, the Bishop coming from 
Alexandria, the doctor from mount Sinai and the desert; and it was arranged 
that the doctor's company of eight gentlemen, and ours of one gentleman and 
three ladies, should unite for the trip through Palestine to Beyroot. Subsequently, 
Bishop Kingsley joined us, and we had the pleasure of his company throughout 
the entire journey. 

On the 18th of March w^e left Jerusalem for the Dead Sea, the Jordan, and 
Jericho, and as our long line wound along the valley of Jehoshaphat — the path 
on the brow of Olivet by which Jesus made his triumiDhal entry into Jerusalem — 
to Bethany, and over the stony hill-sides to the solemn sea, none was more cheer- 
ful, in better health and spirits, and certainly none was a more delightful com- 
panion, than the Bishop, whose face and form stand out before me with startling 
clearness as I recall the day. Mounted on a mettlesome gray horse, and wearing 
the Tcepiah^ a large white cloth used by all eastern travelers, wrapped around his 
broad-brimmed felt hat, with carefully drawn bridle-rein, and a bright lookout 
for every object of interest, he usually rode am ongthe last, to prevent any un- 
pleasant encounter between his horse and the rest. And near him on that day, 
and on how many others, I rode, listening to his stoi'ies of travel, his vivid descrip- 



CALVm KiNGSLEY. 467 

tions of the mnnners nnd customs in the strange lands he had traveled, with an 
eye so observant of all their peculiarities. China and India and California were 
the countries of which he spoke with most interest; and his fund of anecdotes 
was so exhaustless, his memory so clear, and his judgment so correct, that it was 
a source of keen enjoyment to listen while he talked. Often some feature of 
the landscape, some bird or tree or flower, would suggest comparison with what 
he had seen elsewhere ; and I owe to his appreciative observations many a hint 
and many a lesson drawn from the changing panorama of the Holy Land, 

Of the missions and the missionaries he spoke quite frequently, and with the 
deepest interest. His opinions as to the conduct of our vast enterprises in this 
region, as to the duties of the Church, and the prerogatives of our faithful mis- 
sionary bands in all parts of the world, were fully matured, and the most liberal 
and enlightened I have ever had the privilege of hearing expressed by one in 
authority, as they were assuredly based u[)on knowledge the most extended that 
a Christian heart has ever brought to this important subject. Bislioj) Kingsley 
was a brother to every toiling missionary whom he had encountered in his 
wide journeyings. His sympathies were thoroughly aroused for them, and he 
had plans concerning them and their noble tasks which make his loss irreparable 
to them. 

I remember telling him one day how impressive was the thought to me that 
he was the first man who ever sailed around the world on an errand worthy of 
Christ's Gospel; that it seemed a record so bright, so hopeful for our race, that 
the age had dawned in which a Christian heart had proved itself capable of so 
grand a work as this; and I asked, if the time did not seem long since he saw 
you and all those dearest to him. He answered me with that pleasant, patient 
smile, so vivid to my memory at this moment, saying, " O, yes, I should like 
greatly to be with them, and sometimes I get tired; but this is my duty, you 
know, and that is enough." 

Our first Sabbath was spent at Bethel, and at our unanimous request the 
Bishop preached to us from these words: "The kingdom of ht-aven is not meat 
and drink, but lighteousness, peace, and joy, in the Holy Ghost." His sermon 
was about heaven, for the most part, and I have never heard a more interesting 
presentation of the subject. . . . He dwelt eloquently upon the three character- 
istics of the kingdom of God enumerated in the text, and at the close touched 
us all to tears by picturing the delights with which a wanderer returns to the 
home of his youth, thus illustrating that sweeter home-going to our Father's 
house in the skies. 

On the next Sabbath they were at JSTazareth, and the Rev. Mr. 
Calhoun, for thirty years a missionary in Syria, conducted the services. 
There were about thh'ty Americans present who chanced to be en- 
camped there. The subject was the youth of the Saviour, on which 



-i08 Methodist Bishops. 

tlie Bishop also made some remarks, and made tlie closing prayer. 
Miss Willard speaks of his simple, clear exposition of Scripture, and 
of his fervent prayer: "Many denominations were there represented, 
but I have repeatedly heard the remark from those present, that tlie 
place, the theme, and spirit of kindliest fellowship manifested, made 
it the most delightful service of their whole lives. 

The next day they reached Tiberias, and, to nse the language of 
Miss W. again : '' Sat upon the musical shore of Lake Gennesareth. I 
remember that the Bishop said, as he looked out over the placid 
waters : ' Ever since I w^ished for any thing, I have desired to see this 
sacred shore, these hills, this quiet Lake of Galilee.' But these mem- 
ories, so touching as I look back upon them now, must not too long 
beguile me. I, with others, went to bid him good-bye the night before 
he was to sail for Constantinople. He seemed in perfect health, and 
said cheerfully, ^ Good-bye, until we meet in America," his last words 
to us. In the night we set out for Damascus, at ten in the morning 
the Bishop died." 

The closing scene must be described by Dr. Bannister, almost the 
only witness : 

We arrived in Beyroot on April 3d, and took lodgings together at the Hotel 
d 'Orient. On Tuesday, the 5th, we visited the excellent missionary establish- 
ment of the American Board, and later, procured our tickets for passage in the 
Russian steamer, to sail for Constantinople on the evening of the 6th. "Wednes- 
day morning he arose in good health, and ascended the house-top with me to 
view tlie snowy heights of Lebanon. Taking breakfast at the usual time, we 
repaired to our room to arrange for our voyage in the evening. At about nine he 
began to complain of acute neuralgic pains in the left breast and side, extending 
through his arms to his fingers' ends. After lying down awhile -he arose and 
took from his satchel a vial labeled '"Pain Reliever," and applied the medicine 
to the parts affected, and drank some of it. He seemed cheerful and uncon- 
cerned, and spoke of liis pains in gentle and patient utterances. Finding his 
feet cold, and much perspiration on his face, a hot foot-bath was at once ordered 
by me. In this he kept his feet some ten minutes with apparent relief. He rose 
when this was over, during which time he had groaned a little, and spoken in a 
lower voice than usual. He said, "I shall soon get over this, and we sliall go on 
board this afternoon." Adjusting himself to lie down again, he spoke lowly of 
some bad feelings still, and at that instant staggered, and, before I could reach 
him, fell gradually to the floor. Attempting in vain to raise him, I called for 
help, and while it was coming his eyes opened, but they were glassy, yet 



Calvin Kincisley. 4G9 

expressed, as I fancied, surprise. He M^^s immediately lifted to his bed, but heart 
and pulse were still. At con'siderable intervals he made two heavy gasps, between 
which the physician, who had been called, arrived. Fifteen or twenty minutes 
from his fall upon the floor it was all over with him. He died about 10 A. M., 
on April 6th. Tlie whole scene was so astoundingly sudden and stunning, that, 
perhaps, my measure of time may not be precisely accurate; but I have given the 
facts. as accurately as they now occur to me. Till he was raised upon the bed I 
supposed the case only a fainting fit. 

The jpost-mortem. examination, in which Dr. Bannister acquiesced, 
in order to make certain the cause of his death, revealed the case as 
disease of the heart, and one in which no help could have been given 
bj the most prompt remedial aid. 

The- remains of the Bishop were interred in the Russian Protestant 
Cemetery, a beautiful and firmly secured inclosure. All proper courte- 
sies and attentions were manifested by the American Consul, and by 
the missionaries of the American Board. 

One more touching paragraph from Miss Willard, the closing one 
of her letter to Mrs. Kingsley : 

One week later, just before sailing for Europe, we rode out to the quiet, 
almost beautiful, German "God's Acre," near Beyroot, to visit your dear hus- 
band's grave, with our thoughts full of sadness for you and for ourselves. The 
afternoon sun shed long golden beams upon the grave, mingled with shadow^s 
from a large tig-tree near its head, from which I gathered you these leaves. 
That night, as we sailed out into the wide blue sea, I stood at the ship's stern 
and looked long and sadly back upon the lovely landscape, hallowed for me, 
not alone because of its name and history, but more nearly and dearly by your 
husband's new-made grave. 

That was an impressive scene at the General Conference of 1872, 
when, on the 18th of May, the " Memorial Services " were held for the 
four Bishops who had died during the quadrennium, namely : Osmon 
C. Baker, Davis W. Clark, Edward Thomson, and Calvin Kingsley. 
After devotional exercises. Dr. Hibbard in the chair. Bishop Simpson 
first read a short biographical sketch of each. Then followed brief 
eulogies on the departed by personal friends. Dr. Curry spoke of 
Bishop Thomson ; Rev. R. L. Thayer, of Bishop Baker ; Dr. Hitch- 
cock, of Bishop Clark ; and Dr. Moses Hill, to whose admirable 
sketch published in the '' Ladies' Repository," May, 1865, we are 
chiefly indebted for the facts of his earlier life, spoke of Bishop 
28 



470 Methodist Bishops. 

Kingsley. He and the Bisliop were long intimate friends, and lie 
spoke hotli appreciatively and feelingly of the noble traits of charac- 
ter exhibited by the Bishop. Dr. Hill testified to his profound 
ability, his unflinching integrity, his outgnshing kindness and sym- 
pathy. Speaking of the execution of the mission in which he laid 
down his life, Dr. Hill said : 

He alwMj'S seemed to be a man of destiny. Men come up slowly to great 
tilings. Ever since the apostles' days the Church has been striving to push 
farther and farther the conquests of the Cross, and extend tlie out-posts of Zion ; 
the woi'k progressed too slowly. When the Church and the world were ready for 
tlie mission, and when they were inquiring, "Who shall go for us?" Kingsley 
seemed to say, " Here am I, send me; " and he was the tirst man who was sent 
out with a definite purpose to girdle the world for Christ; to go through all 
her i)aths, and note all the places of strength, and bring back the report, and to 
realize what Wesley uttered, " The world is my parish." But on this long 
iourney he fainted and fell ; and when that news came along the lines of the 
sacramental host, all said that a prince and a mighty man had fallen. 

Another noticeable act of the General Conference was to take 
measm^es for the erection of a suitable monument at his errave. A 
member of the IS^ew York East Conference, who had been in Syria 
and visited the Bishop's grave, returning to this country, had first 
called the attention of his own Conference to the matter, and the 
consent of the Bishop's family having been obtained that his grave 
shonld remain in Syria, an invitation was given to the Church to con- 
tribnte for the purpose of procuring a suitable monument. About 
$750 had been already collected for this purpose. The General Con- 
ference, on the 15th of May, adopted the report of the committee 
favorable to this undertaking, and a subscription was immediately 
taken up, amounting to $1,750, which, with the sum before named, 
made $2,500. The execution of the whole matter was referred to a 
committee consisting of Bishops Simpson and Ames, Bev. G. W. 
Woodruff, A. S. Hunt, and Oliver Hoyt, Esq., who have subsequently 
so discharged their trust that a solid granite monument, prepared in 
this country, was sent out to Syria ; and, according to the report of 
the United States Consul at Jerusalem, Bev. Dr. De Hass, was placed 
at his grave at Bey root, on September 23, 1874.^^ 

It may not be unfitting here to quote the eloquent words of 

* See "Pittsburgh Christian Advocate," October 21, 18*74. 



Calvin Kingsley. 471 

Rev. Dr. William Morley Punshon, at tlie same General Conference, 
when, S2)eaking of the several distinguished men who had fallen during 
the four years past, he said : " Kingsley, the brave and brotherly, 
snatched away from you in the fullness of his ripe manhood, and 
before he had drawn upon his reserve j)Ower, dying with tlie con- 
secration upon him of his apostolic travels ; and, as if the sight of the 
Holy Land had but wlietted his desire to go to the Holy Place, that 
from the tracks of the Man of Sorrows he might go to see the King 
in his beauty." 

Space fails. Few must be the concluding words. 'No minute 
delineation of character can be attempted, nor is it necessary. Bishop 
Kingsley's life unveiled his character. He was a man — every inch of 
him — a true Christian man, noble of soul, unselfish, self-sacrificing. 
Duty was as ^reat in his eyes as in those of England's " Iron Duke." 
He was at the utmost remove from every thing little, low, or mean. 
He had a supreme contempt for petty self-seeking. Though unos- 
tentatious, and by no means self-asserting, he nevertheless stood 
firmly by what he believed to be the truth and the right. Cheerful, 
affable, good-humored, companionable, entertaining, he was the joy 
and delight of his friends ; and those who knew him best loved him 
most. As a preacher he was not always eloquent, certainly not fluent. 
He often hesitated for words, especially at the beginning of a dis- 
course. But there were times when he carried every thing before 
him like the mountain avalanche. His mind seemed like a ponderous 
engine, difficult to set in motion, but once under full headway, resist- 
less in its momentum. He was more careful of his matter than of his 
manner — was more solid than brilliant. Yet was he not wantino^ in 
the graces of style, whether in writing or speaking. His letters, 
written upon his travels, are admirable specimens of that kind of 
literature. His pen pictures are vivid, and his descriptions of persons, 
places, and scenes are clear, striking, entertaining, and instructive. 
He was, perhaps, not what should be called quick in judgment. He 
required time to think and decide. But, time given, no man's judg- 
ment was sounder or more reliable. His piety was neither of the 
moody nor extravagant order. But he was devout, serious, fixed in 
his principles, and ready and able to defend them. He had a quiet, 
steadfast zeal for God and his cause, which led him to shrink at no 



472 Methodist Bishops. 

trial, danger, or sacrifice in doing what lie believed to be liis duty. 
His career serves as the highest inspiration to young men seeking an 
education under difficulties. His very difficulties made him, in great 
part, what he was. They were his discipline, his education, his 
future strength. Devotedly attached to his family, and finding his 
highest earthly enjoyment around his own fireside, he was, neverthe- 
less, ready and prompt at the call of duty to go to the farthest part 
of the continent, or to circumnavigate the globe, to endure fatigue 
and pain, and to encounter death itself, if need be, in the service of 
his divine Lord. So lived, so labored, so died Bishop Kingsley, the 
first of our American-born Methodist Bishops to lay his body on a 
foreign shore. Fittingly he sleeps at the foot of snow-crowned 
Lebanon, waiting for "the voice of the archangel" and the trump of 
God. 




8 "'■bT-fiacCKcevce 



REY JOHN WRirxHT ROBERTS 

LATE MISSIONARY BISHOP FOR AFRICA. 



John Wright Roberts. 



BY liEV. T. L. FLOOD, D.D. 



THE history of tlie missionary operations of tlie Methodist Episco- 
pal Chnrch in Africa embraces the life-story of Bishop J. W. 
Koberts. The planting of the Church in that sunny land was at- 
tended with many hardships, much exposure of life, and the deatli 
of a number of heroic men and women. The policy of the Church 
there has necessarily be^en one of experiments, because of the crude 
condition of the people and the dangers of the climate to any but 
natives. At first it was thought expedient to organize and conduct 
the mission under a superintendent, as in other foreign countries, the 
Bishops and Missionary Secretaries of. the Church in America giving 
direction to the work through the local superintendent. This plan 
continued in operation until 1856, when the General Conference 
made provision for the election of a Missionary Bishop, whose juris- 
diction should be limited to Africa. 

Mr. Monroe, President of the United States, in March, 1819, 
approved an act of Congress by wdiich all Africans recaptured from 
slavery should be restored to the coasts of Africa and committed to 
the care of agents of the Government of the United States. The 
American Colonization Society undertook the work of restoring these 
people to their own country; and, strange as it may seem, through 
their labors the Methodist Episcopal Church of Africa was organized 
on a vessel at sea, proving again that " truth is stranger than fiction." 
On February 6, 1820, the Kev. Daniel Coker, wdth a number of 
other emigrants, took passage on board the " Elizabeth," and set sail 
for Africa. While at sea Mr. Coker organized a few of the passen- 
gers, who were godly people, into a Methodist Episcopal Church. 
They trained their new Church wdth songs and prayers, testimony 
and preaching, while tossed on a restless sea, a prototype of w^hat was 
in waiting for the young Church when it would be transplanted from 
the vessel to the land. This body of colonists settled at Sherbro, 



476 Methodist Bishops. 

whence tliej were driven to Sierra Leone, where at last they felt 
secure with a good promise of a healthy growth. 

In 1S25 Mrs. Roberts, a colored woman of great force of char- 
acter, who had escaped from slavery, and who liad become a resident 
of Virginia, seeing the evils of slavery, determined to take her chil- 
dren, and leave what was in name, bnt to her not in fact, a free coun- 
try, to seek freedom in another land. Accordingly, she embarked on 
a vessel for Africa, nnder the direction of the Colonization Society. 
They went to Monrovia. Here she saw her three sons converted 
and joined to the Methodist Episcoj)al Church. Joseph Jenkins 
Roberts entered the mercantile business on the coast and was very 
successful, making several trips to ^N'ew York, where he made most 
of his purchases of goods. He turned his attention to pohtics, and 
was appointed • governor of the Colony under the administration of 
the Colonization Society. After the adoption of the Constitution, 
and when the Republic was organized, he was elected the first Presi- 
dent, and was re-elected for the fourth term. 

Henry J. Roberts was the youngest brother. He read medicine, 
first under the direction of the physicians sent out by the Coloniza- 
tion Society; afterward he was sent to 'New York, where he con- 
tinued his studies until he graduated with honor. He then returned 
to Africa, where he served his people as a physician, and whe]?e he 
filled several important offices in the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
He, as well as his older brother, the President, served as a local 
preacher. 

John Wright Roberts was a young man of studious habits, and 
he utilized his opportunities in the Mission to gather information. 
Soon after his conversion he began the study of theology under the 
direction of the preacher in charge at Monrovia. Before long he 
was licensed as an exhorter. It is not until 1838 that we find him 
reco£:nized as a member of the Conference. In 1841 he was elected 
to elders' orders. 

The time had now come in the history of the Mission when the 
Bishops determined to employ colored men in the higher offices of 
the Church. Accordingly, the Rev. Francis Burns was appointed 
to preside over the Conference in January, 1851, They also 
directed the division of the Conference into three districts, namely. 



John Wright Roberts. 477 

Monrovia, Cape Palmas, and Bassa Districts. Mr. Eoberts was made 
Presiding Elder of Monrovia, and Mr. Burns Presiding Elder of Cape 
Palmas District. 

Up to this time, 1851, there had been $271,218 17 expended bj 
the Missionary Society to establish this Mission, and for this year 
there was an appropriation of $19,432 89. The results were 
eighteen preachers in the field, and 1,204 members and probationers 
enrolled in the Mission. Certainly it was a prudent investment of 
funds, when comj)ared with a similar expenditure in a single Church 
establishment in America and the results that followed in the con- 
version of men. But in Africa the money was invested in living 
preachers, and in setting in motion new agencies, numerous Churches, 
camp-meetings, educational institutions, organizing a Conference, and 
appointing Presiding Elders as overseers of the work. This was a 
memorable jedT in this Church, because in it we see Francis Burns 
and John Wright Roberts, (afterward the first two missionary Bishops 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the world,) advanced to the 
prominent and responsible office of Presiding Elder. They were thus 
fairly on their way, in the providence of God, to the bishopric. 

In 1853 Bishop Scott sailed from Baltimore for Africa, and upon 
his arrival there he presided over the Liberia Conference and visited 
all the preaching appointments on the coast. He was accompanied 
by the Rev. J. W. Horne.^ One result of this visit was, that Bishop 
Scott brought home a practical knowledge of the need of more or- 
dained men in the African work, and the necessity of a bishop resid- 
ing among them. After Bishop Scott returned, a change of plan was 
decided upon, which took shape in so amending the restrictive rule of 
the Discipline as to allow the General Conference to appoint a mission- 
ary Bishop for any of our foreign missions, confining his jurisdiction 
to the limits of his missionary field. The power to elect the Bishop 
was delegated to the Mission Conference, but the man elected m^ust 
present himself in the United States for ordination. In January, 
1858, the Liberia Conference elected Francis Burns. He served his 
Church five years in this office, and died in Baltimore, in April, 1863. 
The General Conference of 1864 delegated power to the Liberia 

* We are under obligations to this gentleman for many of our facts in the life of 
Bishop Roberts. 



478 Methodist Bishops. 

Conference to elect a successor to Bishop Burns. The Conference 
in 1866, elected the Bev. John Wright Boberts to fill the office. 

He immediately came to 'New York, where he was ordained on 
the 20th of June the same year, in St. Baul's Methodist Episcopal 
Church, by Bishops Scott and Janes, assisted by the Bev. Henry 
Boehm and Doctors Harris, Carlton, Holdich, and Borter. He re- 
mained in the city only five days after his ordination, w^hen he started 
for his field of labor. He had presided over the sessions of his Con- 
ference after the death of Bishop Burns until he was elected, and, 
having given the various branches of the work his special attention, 
he was not now a stranger to the preachers, to the work in the in- 
terior, to the Churches, or the educational interests over which he 
was placed as a Bishop. To all of these departments he now gave liis 
undivided attention. The Sunday-school work received the special 
care of Bishops Burns and Boberts, and greatly prospered under 
their supervision. 

In personal appearance Bishop Boberts was a man of more than 
medium height, erect in bearing, and of noble proportions ; he was a 
fair mulatto, with light, close curling hair, and a countenance with 
features well defined. He w^as neat and rather particular in his dress, 
and partial to the clerical black and the white necktie. He was gen- 
tlemanly and dignified in his manners, a genial companion for men 
of the Church and his profession, greatly at ease in social life, though 
elsewhere he was always regarded as reserved in his habits. One might 
have fancied when looking upon him that he was a strong character, 
and that he had inherited a peculiar wealth of nature. He had some 
good qualifications for the office of a Bishop. He was wise and sober, 
prudent and conciliatory, but firm and manly. He presided over his 
Conference with ease ; nothing ruffled his disposition ; he treated his 
brethren with a degree of impartiality and kindness which won their 
respect and esteem. 

As a preacher he did not attempt to carry his congregation by 
storm, for he lacked enthusiasm, and was not a powerful preacher. 
But he w^as a pleasing speaker, clear in his statements of truth, 
thoughtful and spiritual, and his sermons always did his hearers good. 
He was a favorite among the earnest spiritual workers in every 
part of the Mission. One incident will illustrate how fondly this 



John Wright Egberts. 479 

class of people clung to liis name. As far back as 1839 a revival is 
reported at Heddington Station.* 

In a letter of September 20, 18B9, Rev. George S. Brown tells the Board 
that up to that time fifty-nine of the natives had been converted, and the good 
work was still spreading. The previous July Mr. Brown had written to Mr. 
Seys: "For Christ's sake come to Heddington quickly. Let nothing but sick- 
ness prevent. Oome up and see the bush burn. Come up and see the desert 
blossom. Come up and see God convert the heathen. . . . Do not stop to 
change your clothes, to eat or drink or sleep. Salute no man by the way. . . . 
Glory ! glory ! glory be to God for his wonderful work among the heathen ! " 
On the 7th of July nineteen were received into the Church, and among them 
King Tom. On the same day nine were converted in the morning meeting, six 
more in a later meeting. Thirty-six in all on that one day for Christ. The 
king said: "The debely gone long, long way from this town, and spose he 
come back, he pray God for kill him one time." Great assemblies of natives met 
every day and heard the word, and were deeply moved. Tears gushed from peni- 
tent eyes, and shoutings leaped to redeemed lips. It was a Pentecost, and its 
power, like that of a Pentecost, spread, and surrounding towns caught its flame. 

The "Luminary" says: "Here were Veys, Queahs, and Deys, whom we 
heard speak the wonderful works of God. It was too incredible for some. 
The set time to favor Ethiopia seemed to have come." The work possessed 
many distinguishing marks of genuineness. Yet it is not surprising that the 
haters of God should hate so glorious a demonstration of his power and love, 
and the "awakening'* was openly and severely assailed. It was even feared 
by some that Methodism was about to take the Colony if not the Continent. 
The converts were steadfast. Their voice in the later love-feasts w^as, "First 
time I get religion I love God true, but this time I love him pass first time." 

Zoda Quee, a celebrated chief of the Queah tribe, had at this time removed 
near to Heddington, with a large company of his people, and commenced a 
new town. To this Brother Taylor was sent, and Zoda came to hear the word, 
and was personally entreated to give his heart to God. After one of these 
sermons this tall, majestic, noble-looking African arose from his seat, and, walk- 
ing down the aisle, knelt at the altar. Here he prayed and wrestled for a time, 
and at length fell prostrate on the floor. He arose a new creature in Christ 
Jesus ; others followed their chief. Mr. Taylor was appointed to be shepherd of 
this newly gathered flock. The town received the name of Robertsville, in honor 
of Bishop Roberts. 

In the selection of Bishop Koberts the Conference made a wise 
choice. While "under his care the Mission had a fair degree of pros- 

* " Missions and Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church." By Rev. J. M. 
Reid, D.D., to whose valuable work we are indebted for several items in this sketch. 



480 Methodist Bishops. 

perity. There was unity and liarmony, and some progress, but, like 
Bishop Burns, and, indeed, all the chief leaders in this mission station, 
his term of service was brief ; only nine years elapsed from the time 
he was elected till he died. He was now past his sixtieth year. 
General debility, brought on through exposure and attacks of fever, 
unfitted him for further service. The Conference was to assemble 
on January 28, 18Y5, in Greenville, Sinoe County. Early in the 
month Bishop Boberts left his work on the circuit for the purpose of 
engaging a vessel to take the preachers down the coast. The vessel 
was provided, but it stranded, and the Conference was held at Mon- 
rovia. When the preachers came together the Bishop was sick and 
confined to the house. Being unable to meet them, they opened the 
Conference and elected a president from their number. On the 30tli 
of January, 18Y5, on the second day of the session, the members of 
the Conference gathered at the bedside of the Bishop and saw him 
die in the peace of the Gospel he had so long and faithfully preached. 
His death was lamented by the ministers and Church of God through- 
out Liberia. He left a widow and several children, all of whom are 
attached to the Church of their father, and give promise of usefulness 
in the ranks of her membership in the future. 

Bishop Roberts was the last of the missionary Bishops in the 
Church. For some reasons which do not appear, no successor has 
been elected. Bishop Haven visited Africa in November, 1876, and 
labored for three months among the Churches and presided over the 
Conference. His visit was a blessing to the pastors and struggling 
Churches. He brought home much valuable information concerning 
the condition of the work within the bounds of the Liberia Confer- 
ence, and of the importance of an aggressive movement into the 
interior. The spirit of the lamented Cox still pervades the Church. 
During his last visit to Middletown, Connecticut, he said to one of 
the students of Wesleyan University, '' If I die in Africa you must 
come over and write my epitaph." " I will," replied the youth, '' but 
what shall I write ? " " Write," said Cox, " ' Let a thousand fall be- 
fore Africa be given up.' " 



m 



' ^-^ ^5ie''*i~'^- 





Gilbert Haven, 



BY REV. THEODORE L. FLOOD. 



GILBERT I-IAYEN was bom September 19, 1821, at Maiden, a 
suburb of Boston, Mass. In tliis quiet but pleasant village, the 
early years of liis life were spent, and in its schools he acquired the 
rudiments of an ordinary education. Dui-ing these years he is said to 
have evinced no especial talent of any kind, and w^as known at school 
&imply as a good scholar of fair ability. He was a vigorous, robust 
youtli, having a fine physical development ; and is remembered by his 
old associates as a wide-awake boy, fond of sport, and full of merri- 
ment. The period of his boyhood was uneventful, and but few inci- 
dents have been narrated concerning it ; and none of these are of such 
a nature as to indicate wdiat manner of man he was to become, or in 
any way to foreshadow the brilliant career that was to be his. 

At the age of fourteen he was employed as a clerk in a store in 
his native village of Maiden, and after two years of service behind 
the counter, he entered the Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, Mass. 
While there he devoted himself especially to the study of language, 
literature, rhetoric, and oratory, and made such rapid progress in his 
chosen studies, that he soon became known as a fluent speaker and 
graceful declaimer. During his stay at the seminary a gracious revival 
occurred, and young Haven, then in his nineteenth year, was con- 
verted, and at once united with the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
The validity of his conversion was attested by his steadfast faithful- 
ness to the cause of God and the Church of his choice through all 
the vicissitudes of his subsequent career. In 1840 he left the academy 
and returned to his former pursuits, and spent two years in Boston as 
a clerk in a large mercantile establishment. His close and careful 
attention to business, combined with his well-known integrity, made 
him a successful clerk ; while his ready wit and his genial ways gave 
him great popularity both with liis employers and associates. While in 
Boston he became convinced that it was his duty to devote himself to the 



484 Methodist Bishops. 

work of the ministry ; but unlike many yonng men, lie did not deem liim- 
self competent to undertake so great a work without first making the 
most thorough and complete preparation. Hence, before entering on 
his career as a minister, he determined to qualify himself thoroughly 
for his vocation. He accordingly left Boston, relinquishing all 
thoughts of secular preferment, and re-entered the seminary at AYil- 
braham in order to complete his preparation for college. In the 
autumn of 1842 he entered the Wesley an University, at Middletown, 
Conn., as a freshman, and at once took rank among the first students 
of the university. While here, liis studies were not confined to the 
college curriculum., but ranged at large over the field of general litera- 
ture. His reading was varied and extensive, and he speedily became 
conversant w^ith the w^orks of the best English authors, and also 
acquired that excellence of composition and facility as a writer which 
added so much to his renown in after years. 

He soon became a vigorous and independent thinker, as well as a 
brilliant writer. He was already an avowed abolitionist, and entered 
heartily into the discussions which were then so jDrevalent on that sub- 
ject. He never, at that or any other j^eriod of his life, sought to con- 
ceal his convictions or to disguise his sentiments, no matter how^ 
unpopular they might be, but always was an outspoken advocate of 
what he thought to be true and right. 

He graduated in 1846, in the twenty -fifth year of his age, and 
immediately became associated as a teacher with his cousin, now Bishop 
E. O. Haven, in the seminary at Amenia, ]N^. Y. He entered upon 
his work in the seminary with much enthusiasm, and at once became a 
popular and successful teacher. Tlie same year he also began to 
]3reach in the chapel of the seminary and in the neighboring churches. 
His conception of the responsibilities of the ministerial ofiice may be 
learned from the following extract from his diary, written wdiile 
still at Amenia. He says: "I love to preach usually, probably better 
than others love to hear, yet I shrink from the title of 'reverend.' 
Nothing but the most solemn, conscientious, and unwavering conviction 
of duty could have led me into the pulpit." These w^ords show that 
he regarded the ministry not as a profession but as a vocatio'n, so 
sacred in its character that only those who felt themselves called of 
God to this work should presume to take its vows upon them. 



GiLBEiiT Haven. 485 

In 1848 lie was elected pi-incipal of the seminary at Amenia, and 
occupied that position for three years. His connection with the semi- 
nary was beneficial to himself and profitable to the institution. In 
1851, as he was about to leave his position for active work in the min- 
istry, he wrote, " My duties here have been beneficial. My studies 
have enlarged my knowledge ; reflection, my ideas. I have been 
advancing, I trust, in knowledge, holiness, practical wisdom, mental 
power, and spiritual purity. Prayer and meditation have drawn me 
nearer to Christ. I go forth in tlie name of my Saviour. I feel that 
I am willing to be any thing or nothing so that I may win Christ." 
Going forth in such a spirit he could not fail of success. lie was 
received on trial in the New England Conference in March, 1851, and 
for nine years devoted himself faithfully to the work of the ministry. 
His first appointment Avas Northampton, a mission so poor that the 
society was unable to employ a sexton, and the work of building the 
fire and sweeping the church often devolved upon the pastor. He 
soon proved himself worthy of better things, and w^as appointed suc- 
cessively to Wilbraham and Cambridge, and, besides becoming an 
attractive preacher, v^as successful in winning souls to Christ. Dur- 
ing all the years of his ministry, though busy with the many concerns 
that devolved upon the pastor of a large Church, Bishop Haven 
statedly kept up his habits of reading and study, and in this respect 
presents an example especially worthy of imitation by the young min- 
isters of the present day, who desire to attain to a life-long efficiency 
in their chosen work. 

While stationed at Cambridge he was called U23on to mourn the 
loss of his wife, whom he had married while principal at Amenia, nine 
years before, and to whom he was most devotedly attached. His home 
being thus broken up, he removed with his two children to his 
mothers, at Maiden. At the breaking out of the war, in ISGl, he 
became a chaplain in the army. A part of the year 18G3 was spent 
in traveling in Europe and in the East. From 1863 to 1865 he was 
pastor of a prominent Church in Boston. In 1867 he was elected 
editor of " Zion's Herald," which position he continued to occupy till 
1872, when, at the General Conference held at Brooklyn, N. Y., he was 
elected to the episcopal office. 

Having thus briefly sketched in outline the life of Bishop Haven, 



486 Methodist Bishops. 

it remains to consider Mm in those relations in wliicli he attained 
especial prominence. These are as a Writer, as a Keformer, as a 
Preacher, and as a Bishop. 

1. He excelled as a Writer. [NTature had conferred on him a splendid 
gift for nsing the pen. He had a racy style of pntting on ^^aper what 
he saw in his travels, of men, Clmrches, governments, countries, 
and the customs of people ; and was also able to express the pro- 
foundest thought in the most lucid manner. He was possessed of a 
vivid imagination, fine flow of language, and a ready w^it, all of which 
contributed to his success as a writer and a journalist. By untiring 
industry and application he attained a high degree of mental culture, 
and took a high rank among educated men. He was thoroughly versed 
in ancient and modern literature, and it was at these fountains that his 
soul caught the inspiration to become a writer. Love of the pen was 
a passion of his soul. What he saw and felt he was always ready to 
tell. He was not a miser, gathering information, and then, like a 
secluded monk, retiring from the ignorant world to enjoy his knowl- 
edo;e alone. His was a laro:e and ^renerous soul, and what he received 
he freely gave for the good of all. He wrote as a teacher teaches, aild 
as a preacher preaches, to enlighten and bless men, to lift them to a 
higher 23lane of life, to improve society, to spiritualize the Church, to 
elevate jDublic opinion, and to purify the government. His power of 
composition was marvelous. When a group of friends were chatting 
around him, or ^rhile riding in the cars, he was able to wudte with the 
same facility as when sitting in his study or sanctum. Amid the 
routine of Conference business he would write interesting letters to 
private correspondents, or pen articles for leading newspapers, full of 
striking thoughts and sparkling Avit, and yet conduct the affairs of the 
Conference with efficiency and dispatch. A part of his book on 
" Mexico " was written while riding in a stage-coach through the coun- 
try he described. His ability to write under all circumstances will 
account for the great number of his productions. 

Like every man who gets the eye of the world as an editor of a 
paper, and wields a great influence, he gave himself up almost exclu- 
sively to that work for a long time. He loved his work, and his love 
gave inspiration to his pen, so that from it flow^ed "thoughts that 
breathed, and words that burned." " Zion's Herald," the official organ 



Gilbert Haven. 487 

of Methodism in N^ew England, was Lis throne of power for nearly 
live years: here he sat and smote fearlessly and forcefully the 
evils of the day — the rum traffic, spiritualism, political corruption, 
dishonesty, skepticism, and infidelity. He lifted up Jesus Christ as 
the divine Son of God and the son of man ; he taught the great 
doctrines of the Bible and the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures so 
plainly, that no man had occasion to inquire what he believed. As 
a Christian editor he was strong, brilliant, and brave. 

Bishop Haven wrote but few books. A "Volume of Sermons," 
"The Pilgrim's Wallet," "The Life of Father Taylor, the Sailor 
Preacher," " Mexico ; or. Our Kext-door Neighbor," compose the list 
of his publications. Although his books were few, yet he was indus- 
trious with his pen, being almost constantly engaged during his leisure 
moments in preparing articles for the j)i'ess on an endless variety of 
topics. He chose the newspaper as a sort of pulpit wdiere he could 
write, and influence public opinion on the questions of the day dur- 
ing the passing hour. After he became a Bishop he continued to 
write for most, if not all, of the Church papers, and " The Inde- 
pendent." Whenever he went into a section of the Church from 
which the people had heard but little, he poured out his soul, giving 
information as fast as he could gather it. His letters from the South 
wdth the poetic title, " Feathers from a Flying Wing," and his letters 
from Africa, Mexico, and California, greatly increased the knowledge 
of Methodist people every-where in reference to the condition and 
needs of the Church in these different fields. 

It is not extravagant to say that since the days of Wesley, Meth- 
odism has not produced a writer to whom the masses of the people 
were more warmly attached than they were to Bishop Haven, and with 
good reason. He wrote in the most fascinating and instructive man- 
ner about the things people desired to learn concerning the Church 
and her progress, so that it was both entertaining and profitable to 
read his letters. As a writer, he shot across the sky of the Church 
like a meteor. His place no man can fill. He was singular and orig- 
inal, and possessed a genius for continuous writing such as has been 
given to but few men. He will be missed, perhaps, more in the relig- 
ious papers than anywhere else. His letters were sermons without 
texts, and more in number than that of any other American preacher. 



488 Methodist Bishops. 

Hence, it is in tliis department that his loss is especially felt by 
the Chnrch, for her brightest light in the newspaper world has gone 
out, and there is reason to mourn, because in our day the pen is mightier 
than the sword, and our religious press is a bulwark of defense to the 
Church. To properly man the Church papers with writers whose 
souls glow with truth, and whose pens are ever ready to defend it, is 
quite as important as to have pure and loyal men in the pulpits. As 
a writer for the religious press. Bishop Haven had few equals and no 
superiors. The Church will not soon see his like again. 

2. Bishop Haven was a Keformer. He used tlie office which he 
held in the Church to promote the reforms which he advocated. The 
ministry, the editorship, and the bishopric, were each and all employed 
by him for this purpose. He looked npon the success of moral and 
political reforms as helpful to the spread of Christianity, and hence he 
was ahvays ready to give them his influence, and used both the pulpit and 
the press to advocate his cause. His talents commanded the respect 
of men whenever he met them in the battles of life, and when he 
could plant himself among them and lift up the standard of truth he 
did it ; but he always made Christianity and its triumphs his ultimate 
aim. He was not a politician, but a reformer. He was charged again 
and again with being in league with political men in carrying out 
their schemes, but those who made the charge did not understand him. 
He advocated principles, not methods. He was careless as to the vxiy 
things were done, but he was in terrible earnest to have the truth 
planted in the public mind, wdiether it related to government, society, 
or the Churc]i. 

William Lloyd Garrison, Charles Sumner, and Wendell Pliillips, 
all of w^hom were his personal friends, have been greater than party 
men. Tliey have done more for their country and humanity than 
mere partisans could have done. Conservative men have hated and 
persecuted them ; nevertheless, their place in history will be that of 
statesmen and reformers. Bishop Haven was like them as a reformer ; 
equally radical and brave in uttering his convictions, but he differed 
from them in that he was a Methodist in doctrine and education, in 
policy and practice ; and, unlike them, he found full scope for his radi- 
calism without antagonizing the Church or Christianity. He stood in 
the van, and sometimes alone, as a Methodist reformer in his day. 



Gilbert Haven. 489 

Other men in the Church held views similar to his, hut they did not 
give them a voice. A man can be almost any thing in his own thoughts 
and feehngs, and not give offense if he does not speak or act. But 
he spoke what he thought, and acted out what he was. 

He labored especially to promote three reforms. Chief among 
these was the antislavery reform, which set his soul all aglow. On the 
platform, in the pulpit, and in the press, he appeared as the advocate 
of this cause, and never ceased his efforts in this direction till slavery 
was overthrown. He manifested such interest and friendship for the 
slaves, that, without consulting liim. Bishop Ames, at the close of the 
war, sent him a transfer to the South, and stationed him as pastor over 
a colored Church in Yicksburgh. He held the transfer for a time, 
and, like the loyal man that he was, he designed to go to his designated 
field of labor,- but the transfer was revoked. The fact w^as one to 
which he used often to refer afterward in a playful mood by saying 
that he was once pastor of the Church in Yicksburgh for several days. 
Little did he or his friends then think that the day would come when 
he should go into that Southern field as one of the highest officers of 
the Church, and that all that country would be given him to cultivate 
for God. 

After the close of the war he was as stanch a friend of the freed- 
men as he had been of the slaves. On every possible occasion he 
pleaded for them as a father would jolead for his children, and his 
numerous and thrilling appeals aroused the Church to give of her 
means for their benefit. During his residence in the South he w^as 
devoted to their interests, and labored earnestly for their elevation 
and enlightenment, doing every thing in his power to provide for 
their welfare and to secure their rights as Christian citizens. He gave 
practical illustrations of his sympathy and regard for the race which 
he had sought to serve by associating with them, both in private and 
public, and by eating at their tables, and sleeping in their humble 
dwellings. He not only endeavored to persuade the Church and 
individuals to give of their means for their benefit, but he himself 
set the example, and only a short time before his death he gave 
from his own resources $1,000 to assist in building a college for col- 
ored students at Atlanta, and in addition to this, he gave his personal 
obligation to raise $10,000 for the same institution, which was one 
29 



490 Methodist Bishops. 

third of its entire cost. On his death-bed he said: ''I do not 
think the Master will find fault with me for mj work in the Sonth.*' 
In the death of Bishop Haven the African race lost one of the 
truest and stanchest friends this country ever gave them; and it is 
not to be wondered at that there was mourning in many a dusky 
household when the news was heralded abroad that Gilbert Haven 
was dead. 

The temperance reform found also in him a firm supporter. He 
realized that intemperance was both a curse and a crime. Total ab- 
stinence was with him a cardinal virtue. Moral suasion he believed 
in and used, but civil law he regarded as the best and surest means 
for the overthrow of the liquor traffic. He was a radical prohibition- 
ist from first to last. He was fully convinced that half-way meas- 
ures never would eradicate this great and growing evil, but he firmlv 
believed that prohibition would accomplish this result ; and hence he 
championed the cause of prohibition with characteristic ardor. His 
steady and persistent advocacy of temperance principles during his 
entire public career doubtless contributed greatly to increase and 
deepen the temperance sentiment of the country. 

He was also an ardent advocate of enlarging the sphere of woman's 
activities. He believed and taught that woman should have the 
ballot ; that she should be clothed with all the rights and powers of 
citizenship. After he was raised to the Episcopate he was elected 
President of the Woman's ^N'ational Suffrage Association, and pre- 
sided over their deliberations. He also lectured and jjarticipated in 
public debates in the interest of this reform. 

It will be seen from these facts that he was peculiar and radical in 
his views, as a friend of the colored people, as a prohibitionist, and as 
an advocate of woman's suffrage. He was born near Boston and 
grew up in that city, and during his early life drank in the sj^irit of 
its great reformers, who pleaded for equality among all men. The 
natural bent of his mind, his early training, and the fact that he was 
a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which has always been 
the friend of the poor and oppressed, account for his radicalism. 

It was as a reformer that he made a stir in the world. He pro- 
jected his peculiar views into the public mind by means of sermons, 
editorials, lectures, and debates. He planted himself firmly by the 



Gilbert Haven. 491 

side of the poor and oppressed, the wronged and helpless, and fought 
their battles for them, but he always fought in the name of God. 
He was the dauntless champion of every good cause, and every worthy 
reform found in him an able advocate. 

3. As a Preacher, Bishop Haven was distinguished more for pro- 
gressive thouglit than for eloquence or power over an audience. Ills 
voice seemed to be muffled, his style was heavy, and his enunciation 
defective. His manner was not that of an orator. He lacked ability 
to put emotion into his words. There was no magnetism in his 
address. His convictions were deep and always manifested them- 
selves in a positive form in his sermons. Thoughtful, candid people 
heard him gladly and appreciated him ; but in his early life he never 
carried his congregations by storm. His sermons were scholarly ; too 
much so for the masses. In his early ministry he aimed at journalism. 
He set up his mark and worked toward it, and reached it. He did 
it, however, at a sacrifice of pulpit power ; for he had the ability, had 
it been properly cultivated, to have made one of the foremost preach- 
ers of the age. 

When he was made a Bishop his eyes were opened to the impor- 
tance of gathering strength for his pulpit work, and, notwithstanding 
the fact that he was past fifty years of age at the time of his election, 
his mind was so flexible and active that he developed wonderfully 
in pulpit power. One thing annoyed him as a preacher, and it, per- 
haps, spurred him to seek this new gift. When he went into the 
South as a Bishop he found that his sermons did not move the col- 
ored people. They had more regard for his office than for his preach- 
ing. He noticed that an illiterate white or colored preacher could, by 
a plain, homely, but fervid exhortation, readily stir a colored congre- 
gation, and create a shout in the camp ; but when he preached they 
would sit and hear attentively and respectfully, but remained unmoved 
until the end. Hence, he was led to change his style, and his ef- 
fectiveness in the pulpit was greatly increased during the last years 
of his life. The "I^ew York Tribune," and many other leading 
journals in the country, quoted from, and spoke of, his discourse on 
the Chisholm murder, delivered in the Metropolitan Church, in Wash- 
ington, as something indeed wonderful. He seemed to speak with a 
special and powerful inspiration from God, moving his audience to a 



492 Methodist Bishops. 

high pitch of enthusiasm. The occasion, the terrible facts, his burn- 
ing indignation, and the sympathy which he exhibited, combined, many 
think, to make this the most wonderful pulpit effort of his life. 

During all his ministry he preached the plain Gospel. From the 
day he united with the Church until the day of his death he was 
thoroughly Methodistic in doctrine. He did not believe in a few 
doctrines of his Church and reject or conceal others, but he believed 
the Scriptures as interpreted by the articles of faith, in the standard 
works of theology, and he preached them freely, fully, and bravely. 
He always gave truth a bold and strong setting. In this he was true 
to his ordination vows. He despised deception, and entertained a 
holy contempt for sermons which aimed at pleasing men by sacrific- 
ing an opportunity to do them good. He w^as preeminently a min- 
ister of the ^ew Testament. His sermons often bristled with his 
radical views as a reformer ; and on the principle that ideas are power- 
ful, he accomplished more by his ideas than many men do with a finer 
oratory. As a preacher he used all the agencies and machinery of 
his Church, w^omen as well as men, in the pulpit, revival meetings, 
camp-meetings, Conferences, preachers' meetings, institutions of learn- 
ing, and the press, to promote the work of the Church. 

4. When Gilbert Haven was elected one of the Bishops of his 
Church, conservative people were surprised, while radicals and re- 
formers could hardly believe the re]3ort, because they knew^ that men 
of positive views on live issues were not in favor with the people at 
election times. People have ahvays been accustomed to read views in 
advance of their own on questions of the day, both to gratify curi- 
osity and to get a better understanding of coming reforms; but to 
elect one of the most radical of preachers, editors, and reformers, to 
an office that has been pronounced from the beginning to be conserva- 
tive in its workings, as well as in its demands upon the incumbent, was 
a departure more radical than was the man who was called to fill it. 
And this is more especially notable, as he ow^ed his election largely to 
the laity, who, since their association with the ministry in the great 
deliberative body which makes laws and chooses officers for the Church, 
have proved in general much more conservative than their ministerial 
brethren. His presence in the episcopal circle created no commotion. 
Things moved on as before. 'No minister or layman was harmed 



Gilbert Haven. 493 

by this new type of bishop. On the contrary, he was an inspiration 
to his brethren, and a careful overseer of the Churcii at large. The 
position of a general superintendent afforded him scope for the exer- 
cise of some of his highest qualifications, and he soon came to be 
regarded by the entire Church as a man of connnanding talents, and 
of great force of character. 

While occupying the episcopal office Bishop Haven w^as thoroughly 
identified with all the great undertakings of the Church, and sought 
diligently to promote them. He was active and persevering in his 
endeavors to extend the triumphs of the Church, as is seen in liis 
work in Mexico, where it required great tact and organizing skill, as 
well as patience and courage of the highest order ; and also as exhib- 
ited in his work in Africa, where, in spite of the dangers and embar'- 
rassments confronting him, he laid plans for extending Church w^ork 
into the interior. He was continually making appeals for men and 
money to extend the work of the Church in the South, on the Pacific 
coast, and, indeed, every-where. 

He was the friend and advocate of education. When the idea of 
founding a Methodist University in Boston was broached by him, the 
friends of the Wesleyan University at Middletown objected, and con- 
tended that it was unwise and impracticable ; that one university was 
enough for the Church in 'New England. But notwithstanding the 
Wesleyan was his '^alma mater, '^^ he pleaded for a " Boston University ; " 
and when his bosom friend, Isaac Bich, of Boston, died, (the man who 
had furnished the money to publish the Bishop's book entitled, " The 
Pilgrim's Wallet,") it was found that he had left property then valued 
at $1,500,000 to found the new university in Boston. 

Bishop Haven also performed a prodigious amount of work to 
further the interests of the Church in the South. There are now 
nearly 400,000 members in that section of the country, and 18 semi- 
naries, colleges, and theological schools. There have been 60,000 dif- 
ferent pupils taught in these schools since their organization. There 
are tw^o church papers there — one at Atlanta and the other at New 
Orleans. Bishop Haven toiled to build up the Church there in all its 
departments, by constantly writing for the papers, visiting the schools, 
preaching sermons, delivering addresses to the students, visiting the 
colored preachers in their work, dedicating their humble churches, 



494 Methodist Bishops 

and preaching at their camp-meetings. The colored people were 
warmly attached to him, and esteemed him as the advocate of their 
canse and as their friend and benefactor. The work he did in the 
South was more than one man should have done ; and yet his labors 
as a Bishop were not confined to that country or people. 

In 1872 he visited Mexico, by appointment of the Board of Bishops. 
The country was under the control of the Catholic Church. Bishop 
Haven, assisted by Dr. Butler, bought $10,000 worth of property in 
Puebla, and planted the Methodist Episcopal Church in that city. In 
the City of Mexico he made a remarkable and most fortunate purchase 
for Church and mission 23urposes. Dr. Reid says, it forms one of the 
most complete mission establishments in the world. It is located on 
one of the widest streets in the city. It consists of a church with 
vestries and class-rooms, a bookstore and printing-office, two parsonages 
and a school-room, an orphanage, and also a school of the ladies' mis- 
sion, and a home for their missionary, with room to spare. This 
purchase was made for $16,300, and to-day belongs to the Missionary 
Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Clavijero, the Jesuit his- 
torian of Mexico, says of this property : " It was on this spot that the 
impetuous Cortez seized the person of the emperor, and, in the name 
of Charles Y. and the Pope, confiscated his country and all his treas- 
ures to the crown of Spain." The Church of Rome held it as their 
head-quarters in Mexico for about three hundred years ; but through 
Bishop Haven's remarkable business tact and enterprise it has been 
converted into the head-quarters of Methodism in that land, and con- 
stitutes a grand establishment for the sj^read of Christianity, and for 
the overthrow of superstition, ignorance, and crime. 

Bishop Haven received the blow that cost him his life by his visit 
to Africa. He left ^ew York, by appointment of his colleagues, in 
the bark "Jasper," IS'ovember 1, 1876, and reached Monrovia, December 
16, 1876. He presided over the Liberia Conference, held at Monrovia, 
December 18th. He visited all the principal stations of the Confer- 
ence, but never remained on land at night. The country was suffering 
from the Grebo war, which excited apprehensions, among loyal men, 
for the safety of the government. The Bishop, amid the excitement 
coincident with war, aimed at extending his Church into the interior 
of Liberia, and set in motion agencies to effect this result, which are 



Gilbert Haven. 495 

still in operation. When this work was finished he went to the Canary 
Islands, and from thence to Spain, where he made a careful and 
extended examination of the Protestant work in that country, visiting 
Cadiz, Seville, Cordova, Grenada, Madrid, and other j^oints. 

As a Bishop, Gilbert Haven was a blessing and an honor to the 
Church. Wherever lie went he was an earnest and successful worker. 
He made a good presiding officer, being well versed iu parliamentary 
usages, and a good disciplinarian. He was an overseer of the liock of 
God, who impressed the world, as well as the Church, with the fact 
that he lived to serve God and his Chnrcli. 

Bishop Haven bnilt np a remarkable character, and upon this he 
built the superstructure at which we have glanced. His heart was 
right toward God and men. A modern writer has said, " He who 
leaves a useful idea to posterity leaves a legacy ; " but we say the 
richest bequest ever left by man to his survivors is a pure and spot- 
less character; and in this particular Bishop Haven has enriched his 
family and his Church. 

He has been represented as a man of theories, visionary and im- 
practicable in his teachings ; but his friends understood him differently. 
He found enough that was practical in the Scriptures, in Jesus Christ, 
and in the Church, to save him from his sins, and make him a child of 
God, a herald of the truth, and an heir of heaven. The motives which 
caused him to utter strange and startling truths were not born of 
worldly ambitions, nor of crude human nature ; they were the out- 
growths of a soul that was in closest union with a personal Saviour. 
The convictions wliich burned in his soul like fire were from above 
the earth. He prayed in secret, in the family, and in the prayer-meeting. 
This was a marked feature of his life. His communion with God was 
simple and earnest, marked with confidence and much assurance. 
When he prayed, one felt that he talked face to face with God. His 
soul was seasoned with grace. He had a blessed experience in Christ, 
and was always joyous and hopeful. He guarded with a jealous eye 
the gift of God's grace in the soul. It has been said of him that " he 
was a mighty man ; " but his experience of the deep things of God 
was the substratum of his greatness, strength, and power. He was 
rich in faith and in good works. 

He did not, however, seek to become rich in the things of earth. 



496 Methodist Bishops. 

From opportunities of this kind, wliicli other men seek, he turned 
away. In 1870 he declined an invitation from Mr. Henrj C. Bowen, 
to become editor of " The Independent," at a salary of S10,000 per 
year. He preferred to serve the Church of his choice as editor of 
" Zion's Herald," at $2,500, and afterward as Bishop at $3,500. 

He was magnanimous in the treatment of those who misrepresented 
and slandered him ; always believing the truth that a " soft answer 
turneth away wrath." With all the abuse heaped upon him by min- 
isters and members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and 
amid the malignity manifested toward him in their newspapers, he 
kept his temper, remained good-natured, held his ground, and saw his 
Church in all her interests growing and flourishing around him. He 
was charged with being a 23artisan ; but he was more than a partisan, 
he was a patriot. He cared nothing for political parties only as they 
would help important reforms, and the cause of humanity and God. 

There is something beautiful in the beginning and ending of his 
earthly life, itinerant minister and Bishop as he was. The town in 
which he was born was the one in which he died. The mother who 
tended him with loving care in his earliest infancy watched over him 
when he fell asleep in death. Many of his friends in the ministry 
who started with him, and stood by his side in the great and severe 
struggles for the trium]3h of truth were in his room and at his side 
when he knew that the hour of his departure was at hand. 

For several weeks previous to his death none but his attendants 
were permitted to see him. But when it became apparent that his 
days on earth were numbered, and he was informed of this fact, his 
instant request was, "Let me see my friends." They soon gathered 
around him, and found him " joyful in hope," even on the verge of 
the grave. His response to their earnest inquiries was, " It is all right. 
The Master I have served so long will not desert me now." To a 
group of ministerial friends he said, " Preach the whole Gospel. I 
believe the Gospel all through. ^^ The last two words were uttered 
with characteristic emphasis. Nor did he in his last hours forget the 
people he had sought especially to serve. His last words to one who 
had shared his labors in their behalf, were, " Stand by the colored man 
w^hen I am gone." On the afternoon that he died, he said to Dr. 
NewhaU, " There is light ahead." When Dr. Lindsay was about to 



Gilbert Haven. 497 

leave liiin he said, ^' It is good evening now, but it will be good morn- 
ing when we meet again." It did not seem like a dying hour, save 
that all were weeping in the room. And thus he gently passed away, 
saying, ^' There is no death ! " " There is no river ! " " I am sur- 
rounded by angels." " I am floating away — away ! " " Glory ! Vic- 
tory through the blood of the Lamb ! " 

The animated and cheerful view of this life taken by Bishop Haven 
was at times so spirited as to shock the more sedate and sober among 
his brethren. They not only misunderstood him, but often misjudged 
him — regarded him as lacking in depth of sensibilities or great cult- 
ured piety. But could they have stood by his bedside when dying, he 
would at once have so exhibited to them the anomaly of his vivacious 
spirit enjoying an apostolic piety, as to have quickened then- own spir- 
ituality with an apocalyptic view of death, and settled forever their 
unjust estimate of a lively Christian experience. It was possible for 
him to laugh and gloriously die. Nothing was more characteristic 
of the man, possibly, than the greeting with which he met his eldest 
sister, who came to the bed to bid him good-bye. "Well, Sarah," 
said the Bishop, " it is just as I told you it would be ; it's the 
' Deacon's One-IToss Shay,' all broken down at once." And after all 
the shoutings and j)i'ayers of the day, when the last minister w^as 
gone, he said to his family, "Now the reception is over, and we 
will be alone again." His sense of humor was simjDly irresistible, 
even in death. 

In the annals of the Church there are but few more triumphant 
deaths recorded than that of Bishop Gilbert Haven, who died peace- 
fully in the home of his childhood, in Maiden, Mass., January 3, 1880. 
Humanity and the Church, alike, have reason to thank God for his 
life and labors. 

" Like that memorable death-bed reception, his funeral was a sol- 
emn festival. It seemed as if the Bishop, instead of being the mere 
occasion of the great assembling, was himself the chief and most vital 
presence in the throng. The New England Conference were present 
in a body, with almost full ranks. There were also large delegations 
representing the General Missionary Society, the New York Preach- 
ers' Meeting, the Philadelphia Preachers' Meeting, and the Wesleyan 
University." The stores and schools of the town closed in recognition 



498 Methodist Bishops. 

of his death, and the beautiful church, which had been his boast all 
over the land, crowded to its utmost limit, gave an air of the Sabbath 
to the whole community. And the spirit of the hour seized the whole 
Church the wide world round. For no man in the Methodist Church 
were so many eulogies pronounced since the days of Wesley, nor even 
then. The town of Maiden, near Boston, twice touched all zones, 
when Adoniram Judson and Gilbert Haven were born. 



=.SFfc*»i^ 



I 



-^ 




^OL^^^z^c 



Erastus Otis Haven. 



BY KEY. n. II. MOOKE. 



IN this country pedigree and ancestry count but for little, or we 
should undertake to trace the lineage of the subject of this sketch 
back into the remote past. It is a true adage, that blood will tell, 
and the fact that two distinguished Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church have arisen in the same family, and in a single generation, is 
proof that the Haven stock is purple-veined, and of a high mental 
order. Suffice it to say that the subject of this sketch was of an 
ancient New England stock, his ancestry being traced back to Richard 
Haven, who lived in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1640, and that he 
was the son of Rev. Jonathan Haven, of Frainingham, Massachusetts. 

Erastus O. Haven was born in Boston, Massachusetts, November 
1, 1820. At the age of twenty-two he was graduated with honor 
from Wesleyan University, a brilliant, but a humble, young man. 
While yet in his childhood he became a decided Christian, and at the 
age of eleven his mind was drawn toward the ministry of the Gospel. 
On leaving the university he was induced to take charge of a private 
academy in Sudbury, Massachusetts, as that position afforded him the 
desired opportunity to give his attention to the study of theology. 
But, ever obedient to the call of duty to his Church, he accepted, in 
1846, the presidency of Amenia Seminary, in w^hich he was also Pro- 
fessor of Natural Sciences. The same year he was married to Miss 
Mary Frances Coles, daughter of Rev. George Coles, who for many 
years was assistant editor of the New York " Christian Advocate." 

In 1848 he joined the New York Conference, and entered 
upon the work of the regular ministry, receiving ordination at the 
hands of Bishop Janes. In 1848-49 he was pastor of the Twenty- 
fourth-street, now Thirtieth-street, Church, New York city ; 1850--51 
of Red Hook Mission, New York ; in 1852 of Mulberry-street Church, 
(now St. Paul's,) New York city. In 1853 he was called to the 
Professorship of Latin in the Michigan State Uni^^ersity, and the 



502 Methodist Bishops. 

riext year, at his own request, lie was made Professor of Englisli 
Language, Literature, and History. He received in 1854: Lis degree 
of Doctor of Divinity from Union College, and soon after the degree 
of Doctor of Laws from the Ohio Wesleyan University. In 1856 he 
was chosen editor of " Zion's Herald," Boston, which position he held 
for seven years. It was while serving as editor of this paper that Dr. 
Haven became more fully known to the Church and to the world. 
The wide sweep of his information, his knowledge of belles-lettres, 
his exquisite taste, his keen insight into the interests of the Church 
and the affairs of the world, were soon recognized by the readers of 
the "Herald." It was evident that a new and no common man was 
at the helm. The E'ew England Conferences became proud of their 
home journal, and gave to it an unprecedented circulation. At the 
same time he performed the work of pastor for the Maiden Methodist 
Episcopal Church. Ev-en the State itself took a hvely interest in the 
great ability of this Methodist editor. He was made an " Overseer " 
of Harvard University — a great honor to be conferred at that time 
upon a Methodist preacher; he was elected a member of the State 
Senate, and from 1858 to 1863 was a member of the State Board of 
Education. All these positions sought him, not simply to honor him, 
but to receive for themselves the benefit of his sagacity and sound 
judgment. In 1863 he was elected President of the State University 
of Michigan, and he held that position till 1869. He then resigned 
that honorable and agreeable office to accept the presidency of the 
North-western University, at Evanston, Illinois. The General Con- 
ference of 1872 elected him to the office of Secretary of the Board 
of Education, and in 1874 he was called to the chancellorship of the 
new university at Syracuse. In 1880 he was elected to the office of 
Bishop, and died in Salem, Oregon, August 2, 1881, in the midst of 
the duties of his office. 

Bishop Haven, physically, was not a strong man, but intellectually 
and morally he was too evenly developed, too well rounded, and too 
full orbed, to be pre-eminently great in any one particular. He ha-d 
not the flashing eloquence of Summerfleld or of Bascom, yet in the 
pulpit and on the platform he was superior to either as an instructive 
and persuasive orator. He had not the searching analysis of Whedon, 
nor the keen, discriminating, metaphysical insight of Bowne, nor the 



Erastus Otis Haven. 503 

brilliant wit of his cousin, Bishop Gilbert Haven, nor was his mind 
characterized bj any one pre-eminently great faculty. He was great 
as a whole, not in any one of his faculties. His mind was like the 
kaleidoscope, many-sided, and equally brilliant on all sides. He never 
had a morbid feeling ; he was no dreamer ; he was not a poet. 

He Avas a thinker and an actor. In his mind ideas always assumed 
a logical form, and, once there, they stayed as a permanent intellectual 
investment. Science, literature, theology, education, and the practical 
affairs of life, received from him about the same measure of attention. 
He seems to have been equally well adapted to the position of pastor, 
educator, editor, writer, and of the episcopacy. In no respect was he 
a weak or a deficient man. The more complicated and difficult the 
situation, the more brilliant a2)peared his resources and sagacity as a 
manager. In war he would have made a dashing field-marshal ; as a 
devotee of the fine arts he would have succeeded. In these particu- 
lars his nature found gratification in the chivalrous activities of Meth- 
odism, in belles-lettres, and in elegant literature. He was master of 
all the old masters in poetry and prose. His habit of reflection made 
him so familiar with his subjects and the best use of language that 
he wrote and spoke extemporaneously with equal facility. His plat- 
form addresses and baccalaureate sermons were full of the best 
thoughts expressed in classic English. 

Bishop Haven was a discriminating, not a gormandizing, reader, 
and a close observer of men and things. To some extent he was an 
original thinker. He studied man as man, he studied the rocks, the 
ground, the trees, the birds, and nature was an ever-present and open 
volume to his quick vision. From its store-house of fact and philoso- 
phy he drew many of the rich treasures with which his mind was sup- 
plied. He sought scholarship, not for its own sake, but because it 
furnished, at his command, the keys by which he could enter and 
explore the labyrinths of truth. History, literature, and speculative 
philosophy found in him an admiring student. The shams of pre- 
tenders he was quick to detect and vigorous to expose. With the 
modern positive philosophy he was patient, believing that the honesty 
of its advocates would finally detect and discard its errors. 

But over and above every other quality the Bishop was a kind- 
hearted Christian gentleman. Brought up at an altar at which his 



504 Methodist Bishops. 

father ministered as priest, he probably could never remember the 
time when he was free from a sense of religious obligation. His 
knowledge of justification by faith, of regeneration, and acceptance 
with God, was the result of personal experience. If ever his mind 
passed through seasons of doubt and depression, they left behind no 
visible scars of the conflict. God and Christ and heaven were as 
really present to his faith as was the ground to his feet. The spirit- 
ual nature in him was as active and inspiring in its realm of active 
faith as was the intellect in its sphere of thinking. The religious 
capacity grasped and enjoyed a world of spirituality as fully as intel- 
lect recognized a world of ideas. The religious overshadowed and 
gave direction to every other faculty of his soul. He could say, with 
St. Paul : "I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowl- 
edge of Christ Jesus my Lord." 

This life was but a stage in human development, and this world 
a stepping-stone to the next. Bishop Haven was a man of great 
moral courage. He feared no danger, he never shrunk in the 
presence of difficulty or of opposition. When it became necessary 
that Dr. Tappan should vacate the presidency of the Michigan 
State University he left behind him a bed of thorns for the recep- 
tion of his successor. Dr. Haven, who had formerly served the 
university as professor, was elected to fill the vacancy. With a full 
knowledge of all the difficulties of the case, and of all that could 
be apprehended, he accepted the responsibility, and immediately 
entered upon the discharge of its duties. The expected storm sud- 
denly arose and burst with merciless fury upon his head : opposition 
in the form of an organized political campaign of lying, detraction, 
and social ostracism, in which the local press and two large and influ- 
ential religious denominations enlisted, he found arrayed against him. 
But such was the forecast of his mind that all this had been anticipated 
and fully provided for. The new president entered upon his work 
w^ith that faith in God and in himself which brings present cheerful- 
ness and ultimate success. Silently and calmly he performed his work, 
and did it well. Equal silence he enjoined upon his friends. He took 
no time to repel attacks and made no accusations. He had no fears 
of any truths they might tell, and as for the falsehoods, he estimated 
them at their true value. Week after week the campaign raged, but 



Erastus Otis HavetnT. 505 

Haven was doing a great work and could not come down to notice it. 
The man was perfectly self-poised and self-controlled. Every move- 
ment lie made soon gave new evidence of his far-seeing sagacity. His 
work began to tell on the prosperity of the university, which was all 
the defense he needed. Finally, for lack of fuel, the fire began to 
burn low, the storm to spend its force ; Haven was completely victori- 
ous, and his bitterest enemies learned to admire the quiet man who 
proved to be a Hercules in strength. No man ever conquered on 
Christian principles more completely than Haven did at Ann Arbor. 
The university more than doubled the number of its students, its 
finances were well managed, order and morality were in the ascendant, 
students from other States were knocking for admission to its halls, 
and every body was satisfied that the State of Michigan had the right 
man in the right place at Ann Arbor. 

Bishop Haven loved the pulpit, the platform, and the arena of 
debate. He was a kind-hearted, peaceful, forgiving man ; yet he had 
the courage of his convictions, and in the heat of high debate his an- 
tagonist felt the full force of the most remorseless logic. He was as 
insensible to the bitterness of disappointment as to the undue elation 
of success. 

He was a large-hearted, catholic-spirited man, and yet he was as 
true to the Methodist Episcopal Church as is the needle to the pole, 
and was ever ready to respond to her calls. "When the Amenia Serai- 
nary needed a principal the young graduate resigned a pleasant position 
at Sudbury to supply the want. When the JSTorth-western Univer- 
sity, an institution at that time scarcely worth the name, with few 
students, having neither funds nor friends, called upon him, as an 
experienced educator and sagacious manager, to take it in charge, he 
resigned his hard-earned and proud position at Ann Arbor to nurse and 
care for the weak and sickly child at Evanston. He loved Michigan, 
but he loved the Methodist Episcopal Church still more. He could 
be useful at Ann Arbor, but still more so at Evanston. Bishop 
Haven was ever the most fully himself when the most unselfish and 
useful. 

In 1868, five years after Bishop Haven took charge of the Michi- 
gan University, and when that institution w^as enjoying a flood-tide of 
prosperity, he took his seat for the second time in the General Confer- 



506 Methodist Bishops. 

ence, at Chicago, as a delegate. He Lad fought his great fight and 
was well known to the Church as the victor. Many eyes were eager 
to see the man whose single arm had not only vanqnished, but made 
friends of, so many foes. lie was in the early prime of a ripe man- 
iiood, and whatever he did was done easily and done well. All could 
see in him the gentleness of a child and the strength of a great man. 
His compeers were really proud of him as one of their number. His 
was among the most influential minds in that bod v. 

Bishop Haven was a man of great industry. Work was life. Our 
periodical press for many years has been enriched by the best and 
maturest thoughts of his fertile mind. His best-known books and 
treatises are the " Young Man Advised," " Pillars of Truth," and 
" Khetoric ; " and these have had an extensive circulation. In the 
pulpit and on the rostrum he was perfectly self-possessed. AYithout 
knowing it or thinking of it he felt a consciousness of the strength 
that was in him, and of the resources he had at command. Breadth, 
fullness, clearness, and grace, characterized his oratory. On the page 
of history his name will stand among the preeminently successful 
educators of his age and country. In this field of toil his successes 
entitle him to a monument at both Ann Arbor and Evanston. Though 
with fewer difiiculties to encounter, he succeeded equally well as Chan- 
cellor of Syracuse University. Under his brief administration that 
institution enjoyed uninterrupted success. 

A pleasing episode in the Bishop's laborious life was liis visit to 
Great Britain as delegate to the Wesleyan Conference in 18T9. The 
ocean voyage, his wanderings and observations in Europe, together 
with his visit as the authorized messenger of his Church to the 
parent Methodist body, made up a valuable chapter of his life's history. 
His urbane and cordial manners, his deep piety, his learning, and 
chaste addresses, greatly endeared him to that great body of ministers. 
He received every attention which it was in their power to bestow. 

Only a little more than one year were the episcopal robes honored 
by Bishop Haven. But he took to the peculiar work of that high 
ofiice as readily as to the other departments of labor which had engaged 
his attention. His addresses delivered to the Conference graduating 
classes could have come only from a mind and heart which was fully 
imbued with the spirit of the ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 



Erastus Otis Haven. 507 

He presided over the deliberations of the preachers in Conference with 
ease and dignity. The appointments made preserved the peace of tlie 
Church and secured its continued prosperit)^ 

Whether, at the age of sixty, it is wise to take a man from the 
sechision of his study and the lialls of learning to fill the episcopal 
office, is a question the Church should earnestly consider. A younger 
man, and one accustomed to the saddle and to storms, might have 
done the work as well and with greater safety to himself. What 
"Bishop Haven thought of this question we cannot say ; but his habit 
had ever been to obey the call of the Church, and in this instance he 
did not deviate from that rule. Had he at tlie age of forty been made 
a Bishop, he might have lived long and taken his place as an able 
administrator, by the side of Hedding and Janes ; as it was, he accom- 
plished all that- could have been expected of him. 

After he became Bishop he took up his residence in San Francisco, 
California. He was on the North Pacific coast in the discharge of 
the duties of his office when disease' fastened its unyielding grip upon 
him. Diseased kidneys poisoned his blood, and medical skill was of 
no avail. A few days before his departure he dictated a letter to his 
colleagues, informing them of his condition, from which they inferred 
that his work was probably done. He was happy in the conscious 
knowledge that the Christ whom he loved and served was with him 
and accepted him as an heir of heaven. The last enemy over which 
he triumphed was death. In the presence of his wife and one son he 
peacefully breathed his last and passed away. " The workmen die, 
but the Lord still carries on his work." 

When the presiding officer in the General Conference of 1880 an- 
nounced the election of Bishop Haven, a venerable member of that 
body observed to a friend near by, " Down the generations to come 
Erastus will be mistaken for Gilbert, seeing that both the Havens are 
Bishops now." "N'ever," said his friend, "Gilbert must remain Gil- 
bert to the end of time, and Erastus will yet take care of his memory 
before he dies." Nothing could have been truer than the reply. 
Both men were born and lived much of their lives where one might 
have been mistaken for the other in the distant years to come if it 
were not that a continent is between their graves. Surprise was ex- 
pressed every-where in the East that mother and son did not bring 
30 



508 Methodist Bishops. 

tlie remains of husband and father home for burial. But they who 
expressed the surprise had not then learned that the Bishop requested 
to be buried where he died. No more significant thing did he do 
while he lived than make this last decision before he died. Both the 
Bishops Haven went to the Columbia country, but Gilbert, finishing 
the work of his appointment, came back to die. Erastus went there 
by appointment to stay. If " Jason Lee was the original pathfinder 
of empire," in going to the ISTorth-west coast Erastus O. Haven has 
fastened his name no less to the place by being the first Methodist 
Bishop buried along the great Pacific slope. It may be said of him, 
as Hunter sang of Drummond, who died soon after his appointment 
to the great South-west, 

' ' He asked not a stone sculptured with verse, 
He asked not that fame should his merits rehearse, 
But he asked, as a boon when he gave up the ghost, 
That his brethren might know that he died at his post." 

A hundred other Bishops may die and be buried 

"In the continuous woods 
Where rolls the Oregon," 

but among all their graves Methodist pilgrims will seek as a shrine the 
resting-place of Bishop Haven, because it was the foremost and first. 



ORIGIN 



OF THE 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH. 



THE Methodist Episcopal Churcli, South, was organized on May 
1, 184:55 at Louisville, Ky., by a Convention of Methodist minis- 
ters residing within the then slave-holding States ; and its first Gen- 
eral Conference was held at Petersburgh, Ya., on May 1, 1846. This 
great movement was made in consequence of the action of the Gen- 
eral Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, held at ISTew 
York, in 1841, in regard to Bishop James O. Andrew, who, ''by 
marriage or otherwise, had become connected with slavery." This 
action was based upon the assumption that slave-holding by a Bishop 
of that Church was a proper bar to the performance of the office. 
Thereupon on the first day of June, on motion of Rev. J. B. Finley, 
a resolution was passed by a majority of one hundred and eleven to 
sixty-nine, that, " It is the sense of this General Conference that he 
desist from the exercise of this office so long as this impediment 
remains." 

This drew forth a long and animated discussion, conducted in a 
spirit of eminent courtesy when the deej) interests at stake are con- 
sidered. A solemn protest was made by the Southern delegation, 
written by Dr., afterward Bishop, Henry B. Bascom, to which a 



510 Methodist Bishops. 

reply stating the Northern grounds, was furnished by Dr. John P. 
Durbin. The former, it is curious to remark, was a native of the 
North, the latter of the South. The Southern delegation affirmed 
that it would be impossible to maintain the continued existence of 
their Church if the movement was made, and the Northern equally 
declared that disintegration of their own Churches would result if 
the movement failed, so that the issue appeared to be, and truly was, 
insurmountable. 

At length a Committee of Nine was appomted, who drew up what 
has been called a " Plan of Separation," which provided that if the 
Southern brethren found it necessary to organize a new Church, there 
should be a certain boundary line, over which neither party should 
pass. A division of the Church property was agreed upon, condi- 
tioned upon its being duly sanctioned by the Annual Conferences, 
according to the Kestrictive Pules. In due course of time the 
projDOsal was put through the round of the Annual Conferences, 
but failed of the requisite majority. A proposal to place the 
question under arbitration w^as made by Southern brethren, but 
w^as declined by the Northern, on the ground that they had no 
constitutional power to dispose of the property of the Church, 
except under authorization of law. Prosecution was, therefore, com- 
menced, and the memorable case was brought before the Supreme 
Court of the United States and decided. Judge Nelson delivering the 
opinion of the Court, April 25, 1854, that the Church was duly 
divided, and that the division of the property should be completed. 
From the two Book Concerns at New York and Cincinnati, and from 
the Chartered Fund, there were paid over to the Church South about 
$300,000. Though in regard to the justice and legality of this decis- 
ion different opinions have been held by the two Churches, yet as it 
received from this decision the compulsory force of law, it was, of 
course, promptly obeyed ; and probably very few, of either Church, 
now regret that the payment, legally or equitably binding or not, 
was completely made. It seems clear that the existence of the two 
Churches was practically necessary. The opposite public sentiment 
on the subject of slavery in the two sections obliged the measure, 
and we may, perhaps, truly say a separation was the best thing 
attainable. 



Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 511 

During the ensuing four years not a little discord continued, aris- 
ing from alleged over-passing the boundary line. When the General 
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church met, in 1848, at Pitts- 
burgh the venerable Dr. Lovick Pierce appeared, duly accredited 
as fraternal delegate from the Church South. lie was received, per- 
sonally, with great courtesy,, and invited to a seat within the bar; 
but objections were made to any fraternal intercourse with the Church 
South. Its validity as a Church was, indeed, not questioned. But 
an extended statement was made of the difficulties arising from an 
imputed transgression of the boundary, and made the basis of non. 
intercourse. Dr. Pierce, with characteristic dignity, declined the 
courtesies offered to his personal, and not to his official, character ; 
and departed, declaring that his Church was ready to listen to any del- 
egate from the Methodist Episcopal Church upon the basis of the 
" Plan of Separation." 

In consequence of the above alleged violations and other reasons 
assigned in their statement, the General Conference declared the 
" Plan of Separation " null and void, thus making it no longer a bar- 
rier to the transition of either Church into the other section. Under 
the adverse fortunes of the late Civil War the Church South suffered 
great disintegrations. But with returning peace her Conferences 
were resumed, her periodicals and Publishing House re-established, 
and her churchly prosperity and power have rapidly advanced. In 
her Yanderbilt University she has one of the noblest Southern lit- 
erary institutions ; she has 6 Bishops, 41 Conferences, and 847,703 
members. 

Before the war no efforts were made at restoring fraternal inter- 
changes between the two Churches. But under the benign influ- 
ences of restored peace, after several movements had proved aborcive, 
under authority of the two General Conferences a convention of dele- 
gates from both Churches assembled at Cape May, in August, 1876, 
and settled the terms of Christian communion. The impracticability 
of redrawing the old boundary line of 1844, or, indeed, of any geo- 
graphical division, was recognized ; but all future unmanly strifes 
about Church properties were provided against ; the old estrangement 
of feeling was removed, and it was agreed that as two sister Churches 
we should rejoice in each other's prosperity, and seek to fulfill together 



512 Methodist Bishops. 

our mission of holiness. Upon this has followed oiii* London 'Ecu-. 
menical Conference, which has thrilled the hearts of all onr Method- 
isms, Episcopal and non-Episcopal, North and South, East and "West, 
white and colored, with a new spirit of Christian amitj. An Ameri- 
can General Conference of our entire Methodism, clothed, not with 
legislative, but w^ith advisory powers, will more than coniirm this 
happy state of things. And, surely, the richest blessings of Heaven 
will rest down upon this scene of fraternal union. May no future 
strife, civil or religious, ever again divide us ! 




o'^1 



y 



O^^^lyUZ. ^{Tty. 




U^'^EVo [BDi^l>0(D)IP J(D:'S[H] ISA §(D)[L1 LiE^ ©o Pc 



Joshua Soule. 



THE life of Joshua Soule, though a great and good one, was not 
remarkable for striking historical events. He was born in the 
town of Bristol, Me., not far from the celebrated settlement of Pem- 
aquid, on the first day of August, in the year of our Lord, 1781. His 
jpather had lived at a place called Eound Pond, on a farm known as the 
Chamberlain Place, till August 13, 1773. This farm was sold on that 
day to the Pev. A. M'Leah, a gentleman of considerable note in the 
early history of that ancient town ; and Mr. Soule's father, whose 
name was also Joshua, at once removed to a neighboring farm on Broad 
Cove, where the future Bishop first saw the light of life. 

It is not quite certain how long the family remained on the Broad 
Cove farm. The next thing we hear of them, they had removed to 
the town of Avon, in a fertile region of Maine known as the Sandy 
Piver country ; and it is a region, too, it may be said in this connection, 
eminently productive of celebrated men. 

Pains have been taken to search out and determine the intellectual 
and moral character, as well as the social standing, of the parents of 
our distinguished subject ; and it is found that the father was a man 
of consequence in both the towns, and in every locality where he lived. 
His name frequently occurs in the records of the town of Bristol. He 
is often spoken of in official documents, as well as in the local histo- 
ries, as Captain Soule ; and he was one of the Board of Selectmen of 
Bristol the very year when his most eminent son was born. 'No public 
record is found of the mother of the Bishop ; but the writer of this 
sketch has the force of tradition for the declaration, that, though a 
woman of few words, she was noted for the strength and breadth of 
her intellect, and not less for the remarkable decision of character 
evinced by her on all occasions. She was evidently a woman af well- 
defined opinions; and, like her son, she was never afraid to state 
them. 



516 Methodist Bishops. 

Society, in tlie modern sense of tlie term, was something then quite 
•unknown in these provincial towns pertaining to Massachusetts. Some 
of the best blood of the old Bay State, though then a colony, had been 
poured into the veins of this Maine population ; and England, as well 
as France, had contributed not a little to its further improvement. 
The most aristocratic of families, however, are apt to become demo- 
cratic by the daily popular contact so characteristic of all new set- 
tlements. Men of the largest brain and highest culture soon miingle 
with the general mass from sheer necessity ; and all attempts at exclu- 
siveness or selection are commonly frowned down, if there is any one 
family bold enough to make the undertaking. It was so at the time 
spoken of in these rural localities in Maine. Xo one person was in 
the way of seeing so many people that he found it essential to his 
comfort to draw any social lines ; nor does it appear that any one, in 
those early days, sought seclusion ; and, consequently, what was then 
known as society was the whole neighborhood, where the entire popu- 
lation stood upon the same general level. It is asserted, however, that 
the family of Bishop Soule's father were a little inclined to be particu- 
lar about the social position of their acquaintances ; and it is probably 
for this reason that they have been, from the earliest times, spoken of as 
somewhat too consequential, or, as some would style it, aristocratic. 

Methodism, as a religious denomination, was at this time just 
beginning to be known in the United States. "\Yesley had commenced 
preaching in England in 1T39 ; he had spent a little time as a mis- 
sionary in Georgia a few years later ; and in 1784 Dr. Thomas Coke 
had been ordained by him to come over and lay the foundations of the 
American Methodist Church. This work had been accomplished at 
the celebrated Christmas Conference, a called convention of all the 
Methodist ministers in the country, on the Christmas-day of 1785, 
which not only acknowledged the authority of Dr. Coke as Superin- 
tendent under Wesley, but elected the Rev. Francis Asbury, an English 
Methodist then residing and preaching in this country, as joint Super- 
intendent, or Bishop, of all the Methodist Societies then existing in the 
United States. At the time of Mr. Wesley's death, on March 2, 1791, 
there were only one hundred and ninety-eight Methodist preachers, 
traveling and local, on this side of the Atlantic ; and it was not till 
August 3, 1792, that the Methodists of 'New England felt strong or 



Joshua Soule. 517 

numerous enough to hold an Annual Conference. This first conven- 
tion was held in the then unfinished meeting-house belonging to the 
Methodists of Lynn. It was the first building of its kind in Massa- 
chusetts. Only nine persons, including Bishop Asbury himself, attended 
on that occasion. Near to Asbury sat the great apostle of New En- 
gland Methodism, the Rev. Jesse Lee, who afterward brought the tid- 
ings of the new Gospel to the valleys and hills of Maine. Another 
man sat there, however, in that Lynn Conference, who, though born 
in New Jersey in 1768, was the first sent to take official oversight as 
Presiding Elder of the Methodist work in this now flourishing State. 
That man w^as the Eev. Joshua Taylor, whose field of labor covered 
the whole province, and who, in the providence of God, was the instru- 
ment of bringing young Soule into the ministry of the Methodist 
Church. It happened in this manner : In 1798 while Taylor was still 
in charge of the Maine District, a young man of about seventeen 
years of age came to him one day, and requested the privilege of going 
with him in his travels, and aiding him in his work by exhortation, 
prayer, or preaching, as circumstances might suggest. This young man 
was Joshua Soule. The overture was at once accepted. The youthful 
itinerant soon afterward presented himself, riding a good horse, on 
whose back he had thrown a pair of ordinary saddle-bags, in which he 
had stowed all his worldly goods, including a change of clothing, a 
Bible and hymn book, and a few articles essential to a decent toilet. 
He had, of his own free will, joined a Methodist class about one year 
before. He now set forth on the mission of his life. 

At the time this connection was formed between the two itiner- 
ants, Soule was seventeen, and Taylor thirty years of age ; and it is easy 
to one w^ell acquainted with the backwoods of Maine in early times, 
to realize in fancy the picture of this young man and boy riding over 
the sparely settled country, stopping now and then at a friendly but 
humble settler's house, talking earnestly, and then praying with his 
family, taking such cheap but healthful refreshments as their board 
supplied, all the time and every-where pressing the subject of per- 
sonal religion upon every one they met along the way, and stopping 
here and there to deliver a sermon and an exhortation, sometimes in a 
school-house, at other times in a farmer's kitchen, and occasionally in 
some empty barn, which had been swept and seated for the purpose. 



518 Methodist Bishops. 

It cannot be said that either of these men was educated, in any 
ordinary sense of the term, at the time here mentioned. Taylor had 
been born in Princeton, IS'ew Jersey, a place, even in his day, noted 
for its attention to education ; and the schools of the place, as well as 
the society he found there, must have given him some considerable 
erudition and refinement. He was certainly a person of exact speech, 
of wide information, and of great refinement, in the closing period of 
his life, when the writer of this sketch used to know him. But Soule, 
at the time of forming this connection with Taylor, was truly a back- 
woods boy — tall and lean in person, straight as an arrow, with large 
prominent eyes, a high well-developed forehead, and a head apparently 
too large and heavy for the slender trunk it stood on ; and his step 
was so firm, his carriage so high, and his general aspect so command- 
ing, even at that age, that he was always at first sight thought to be 
naturally aristocratic, if not a little haughty. A more intimate 
acquaintance, however, never failed to remove this unjust susj)icion. 
He was ever found to be, in spite of all this natural dignity of man- 
ner, sensible, self -distrusting, even modest in his real nature. It can- 
not be said, indeed, that he felt conscious of inferiority to those about 
him. This would be the same as to accuse him of not being sensible. 
He certainly was conscious of his mental power ; and even at seven- 
teen he seldom met a person so strong of intellect that he had not the 
right to feel that nature had made him a little stronger. Xor can such 
a fact be conceded by any amount of natural modesty. 

Even at the beginning of his career, he showed himself the mas- 
ter. Taylor, as we have seen, was his superior in age and rank ; he 
was also an easy, fluent, and elegant speaker, and he was consequently 
very popular in every rural pulpit. But it was soon discovered by 
him and others that whenever it was known that Soule was going to 
preach at any point, the congregation was always larger than usual — 
sometimes more than twice as large. A portion of this populai'ity 
was due, of course, to his extreme youthfulness, for he was generally 
spoken of as "the boy preacher;" but his matter, always profound, 
and his manner, dignified and commanding, had still more to do with 
making him impressive ; and then his pure and simple life, his con- 
stant application to his work, together with his great earnestness of 
spirit, a deep sincerity being evident in every word he uttered, con- 



Joshua Souli:. 519 

spired to make him an object of admiration from the very commence- 
ment of his ministry. 

Loved, followed, and admired as he was, however, his field of 
labor was not always a field of roses. He met with opposition, as 
such men always do, in proportion to his consequence. Small men 
will oftentimes slip quietly along through the world, meeting with no 
rebuffs, because they never make themselves of consequence enough 
to call out antagonism. Men of real power, on the contrary, are 
always doing something ; they disturb the foundations of other peo- 
ple ; many have to get out of their w^ay or be trampled on ; and so 
they have to meet, because they necessarily create, opposition. And 
Joshua Soule, from his earliest days, w^as a person of this character. 
'Not only did he recommend piety and enforce religion, as he under- 
stood these things, but he was in the habit of striking down opposing 
theories, thrusting from his path injurious obstacles, and clearing the 
way before him by removing whatever threatened to stop his prog- 
ress. This part of his work made him appear combative. He was 
soon looked upon as a controversial preacher, because he saw the 
necessity of overturning the Calvinistic, the Unitarian, the XJniversal- 
ist systems of speculation, before he could cause the people to re- 
ceive the doctrines of original Christianity as he had come to under- 
stand them. He was not naturally given to polemics, but these 
things stood in his way ; and, like he would have done on his father's 
farm, he sought to clear off the rubbish before he could successfully 
scatter the good seed. 

Still, in spite of all these discouragements, the work went bravely 
and grandly forward. And in this connection there is no name 
worthy of greater honor than that of the young itinerant, Joshua 
Soule. No one has reason to suppose that a young man of the back- 
woods of Maine, brought up in labor upon his father's farm, spending 
his young years with so few of the privileges of school, could now 
step- forth at the age of seventeen, with the intellectual wealth and 
polish of a scholar, or endowed with the penetration and power of a 
man of practical logical abilities. But there were traits about him of 
the most striking and impressive character. His tall and erect person, 
his large head, his brilliant eyes, his grave demeanor, his dignified 
earnestness of spii'it, were quite enough, even at that early age, to 



520 Methodist Bishops. 

attract and fasten tlie attention of an anclience. His slow, deliberate, 
thoughtful manner of speaking, in which every word meant some- 
thing, and where a thought was never weakened by boyish, haste, 
made him appear to be a much older man than he really was ; and his 
words seemed to have a weight proportionate to the cool deliberation 
with which they were dealt out to the listening multitude. He was 
always careful not to overstate his point, and this care of himself gave 
him greater authority over his most intelligent audiences. But it was 
not his style alone that clothed him with this strong personal influence. 
His matter was, in general, quite equal to his manner. It was always 
beyond all that could have been expected of one so youthful and so 
unprepared by education. His hearers were ever in a state of wonder 
as to the mystery of his possessing such a fund of ideas of things 
that he had apparently never studied. But, in his way, and without 
knowing it, young Soule was a person of real genius ; and, like all 
of his class, he had knowledge that he himself could not have traced 
back to the time and manner of obtaining it. It had come to him 
spontaneously, by intuition, or in whatever way ideas habitually 
spring up in the minds of men of genius. 

Joshua Soule at the age of seventeen was licensed to preach. This 
first license was given him by Joshua Taylor, in 1798. He was or- 
dained elder in 1802, and would have received the ordination earlier, 
had it been consistent with the rules of the denomination ; and in 1804 
he was put in charge of the entire Methodist work in Maine, as pre- 
siding elder, having all the veteran preachers under him at the age of 
twenty-three. 

Methodism in Maine at that time consisted of twelve circuits and 
one station, and covered a territory whose circumference measured 
more than twelve hundred miles. The amount of travel required of • 
him in this vast field was enormous. IS'o railways existed in those days. 
The common highways, even, were seldom safe for a light one-horse 
vehicle. All these great distances were to be passed over four times 
a year, and all the riding was to be done on horseback. Many of the 
rivers were yet destitute of bridges. A few ferries had been estab- 
lished, but generally all the streams to be crossed, in the spring and 
summer seasons, and all the way on through the fall freshets, were 
forded by horseback tourists. In after life Mr. Soule used to relate 



Joshua Soule. 521 

many instances where lie came near being drowned by tlie unex- 
pected depth of the swollen water. On one occasion, when fording a 
river, his horse plunged and threw him. Loaded with thick boots 
and a heavy coat, whose pockets were still further weiglited down 
by being stuffed with books, the most he could do was to keep him- 
self afloat. But his cool and deliberate style of doing all things served 
a good purpose in this emergency. Seeing a jam of logs which had 
lodged on a rock below him, he worked himself into the current set- 
ting in that direction ; and he there found a way, by using one of the 
looser logs as a raft, to paddle himself to shore without the loss of any 
of his property. His horse, however, left thus to his owm freedom, had 
made off to the door-yard of a friend, where he had often found a 
hitching-place and sometimes a stable. Here the itinerant, as he ex- 
pected, found him. But the preacher had an appointment for that 
evening, and so, after drying himself a little before an open fire, such 
as they had in those primeval times, he proceeded on his journey. 

It was the custom in those days for Methodist ministers to hold 
meetings and preach sermons at every place where it was known 
that they were to stay over night. They thus averaged four or five 
discourses during the week, and they nearly always preached three 
times on Sunday. This amount of public speaking would have killed 
off all the preachers, had it not been for their incessant horseback 
riding ; and the riding would have killed them, had it not been for 
the rest or recreation brought about by all this preaching. The one 
was a relief, an antidote, to the other. Mr. Soule's pulpit recreations 
must have been quite sufficient for any quantity of horseback labor, 
for his sermons were always long, and they grew more and more so 
as he advanced in years and took higher rank in the denomination. 

In the early days of American Methodism the preachers were so 
few that, though widely scattered, they all held the right of attending 
upon the regular meetings of the ministers, which were known as 
Conferences. But in a few years the number had so multiplied that 
it was found difficult to get them all together, or to find a society 
large enough to entertain them. These circumstances led to a change 
of polity, and in 1808, when the annual gathering was held in Balti- 
more, the plan of a delegated General Conference was adopted, which 
was to meet every fourth year, while the whole work was divided 



522 Methodist Bishops. 

into geographical sections, within eacli of which a sectional Con- 
ference was to be held every year, to be presided over by one of 
the Bishops. No wiser, more effective, or more thoroughly sys- 
tematic plan could have been devised. It has given to American 
Methodism its order, harmony, and strength. And it is a proof of 
the great abilities of the subject of these memorials, that this new con- 
stitution, which still remains the fundamental law of the denomination, 
was drawn up by Joshua Soule. He had then been only ten years in 
the ministry, and, what is still more remarkable, he was only twenty- 
seven years of age. 

This profound legislator and powerful preacher, however, was in 
no way unduly elated by his success. After the close of the Balti- 
more Conference he returned to his work in the province of Maine 
as if nothing had happened, the same dignified and yet humble and 
conscientious young man he was before. All the people were aware, 
indeed, that he had suddenly risen to the first rank among the re- 
markable men of his generation ; but not a word — no allusion to it — 
ever came from him. Conscious of his powers, as he evidently was, 
he seemed to take the honors given him as a matter of course, or 
probably as no honors at all, but rather as additional responsibilities 
and work. But work he liked ; nor did responsibility, even, sit very 
heavily upon him, for he always felt equal to every newly-imposed 
labor. And so he came again to Maine, willing to perform any 
duties called for by the growing cause. 

Between the years 1807 and 1811, Soule had charge of the Port- 
land district. Me., when, his term having expired, he was stationed at 
Lynn, Mass. 'No one event in his useful life appears more marked than 
the rest in the general tenor of his career. The same hard work was 
attendant on him through all these years. He rode, visited, preached, 
exposed himself, and studied, as in the years before. If any change, 
occurred to him at all, it was in the character of his daily studies. Prior 
to this period his chief intellectual concern had been theology. He 
now had taken a brief look into the great world ; and he had, doubt- 
less, fallen in with some men who knew more of mankind in general 
than he could claim to know. But he was a person who could never 
consent to be humbled by such comparisons, so long as there was the 
smallest chance to rise above them. He seemed now determined not 



Joshua Soule. 523 

to stand, in respect to general knowledge, below the most knowing of 
liis distinguished ministerial brethren. He had always been a close 
and persevering student. He now became a general, though still a 
careful, reader. He never read a book for mere amusement. Every 
page selected by him must be loaded with useful information. His 
powerful memory, aided by his slow and thoughtful way of reading, 
grasped and held every fact as firmly as if fastened in a vise. He 
has been heard to say that he never forgot any thing which he ever 
really knew. His mind, by this retentive j)ower, soon became a rich 
storehouse of intellectual wealth. He never, indeed, became a 
scholar, for scholarship was not the thing he aimed at ; and he was 
now too old to begin the work anew and lay the foundation of a 
thorough education. But he soon w^as noted as a man of general 
knowledge aiid extensive information. One of the judges of the 
supreme judicial court of Maine, who had known him in his boyhood, 
and who spent a whole evening with him in the winter of 1812, 
expressed great surprise at the transformation wrought upon him in 
so short a time. When Soule began to preach, his photograph, as 
given us by Enoch Mudge, was this : " He had a precocious mind, 
a strong memory, a manly and dignified turn, although his appear- 
ance was exceedingly rustic." In 1812, as seen by the learned judge, 
he had become " a man of wonderful information, knowing almost 
every thing, and the most polished gentleman I know." Such is the 
change that grace and hard study will work out for every genuine 
and earnest man. 

No very noticeable events took place in the life of the rising 
young minister, beyond the hard work and constant study already 
mentioned, for the four years next succeeding. In Maine, and for a 
part of the time in Massachusetts, he went on working for the exten- 
sion of Methodism, which he in his heart received as the best extant 
realization of the teachings of the Son of God. With him, the ideal 
of apostolic Christianity, both in faith and worship, in substance and 
in form, in doctrine and in discipline, was in Methodism almost per- 
fectly restored. He thoroughly believed that salvation was now again 
offered to the world, as well as conserved in living ceremonies and 
institutions, for the support of those obtaining it, precisely as in 
the apostolic times. Rejoicing, too, in his own personal salvation, 



52i Methodist Bishops. 

which made him a happy and a useful man, and which he valued 
beyond the value of all things on earth, his single ambition seemed to 
be to make others as happy and as useful as himself ; and his zeal in 
the great work — the loftiest possible to a human being — sustained by 
his now general knowledge and great natural talents, to many made 
his life seem morally sublime. 

In the year 1812 he was sent as a delegate to the first delegated 
General Conference of Methodism within the limits of the United 
States. By this time the young itinerant from the backwoods of 
Maine was known throughout the Connection in our country. He 
was now, at thirty-five, near the full maturity of his intellectual 
strength. Tall, dignified, commanding in his personal appearance, as 
well as polite though reserved in his general bearing, he presented a 
figure in the Conference sufficiently prominent and engaging to attract 
all eyes. But he never was a man to push himself into prominence 
by any effort of his own. So far as he himself was concerned, he 
always allowed things to take their course. When a labor was imposed 
upon him, or he had a duty to perform, he was ever at his post ; and 
whatever he undertook, he worked on it faithfully, and generally 
attained success. 

At the I^ew England Conference held June 1, 1815, Mr. Soule 
was again elected to the approaching General Conference of May, 
1816, he being at the time the Presiding Elder of the Kennebeck 
District. To those who have studied the history of this impor- 
tant crisis in American Methodism, his name takes rank with the 
very first ; the committees he headed, and the work reported by 
him, were of the highest importance ; and when the Conference 
had completed its session and adjourned, the Methodist world 
favorably received the not-unexpected information that the young 
backwoods-man had been taken from the itinerant hardships of the 
great field in Maine, placed in the then highest literary seat of the 
denomination, and set down to live amid the rising splendors of 
the metropolitan city of New York ! 

The post now given him, in a word, was that of Book Agent, or 
Publisher, for American Methodism ; and to this office was attached 
that of editor of the " Methodist Magazine," at that time the only 
literary publication of the American Methodist Church. At the time 



Joshua Soule. 525 

of this Conference, in fact, it was not a publication, but a project, 
which is said to have sprung from the prohfic as well as organizing 
brain of Joshua Soule. There is, however, no absolute certainty of 
this statement. It is certain, indeed, that Mr. Soule was the warmest 
advocate of the establishment of such a work ; and when it appeared 
in the world two years afterward, it very fittingly bore his name as 
editor upon its title-page. 

But Mr. Soule was not, as we have previously seen, a literary man. 
Nor was he competent for the place of editor of a truly literary pub- 
lication. The consequence was, that in his hands the " Methodist 
Magazine" was scarcely worthy of being called a literary work. It 
was, in fact, religious rather than literary. 'Not only was the editor 
destitute of the genuine literary education, taste, and zeal, and thus 
incapable of giving tone to a purely literary publication, but there 
were at that time not a sufficient number of good English writers 
within the bounds of the denomination to supply its pages with matter 
of the true literary stamp. Great pulpit orators, of which we had an 
abundance, are very frequently the very weakest and poorest writers. 
The result was that, between the insufficiency of the editor and the 
almost total lack of competent contributors, the " Magazine " became 
rather a slim performance. As a religious journal, containing many 
valuable religious notes of the times, and particularly as a repository 
of biographical sketches of the deceased preachers, it has its value for 
all coming centuries within the denomination. 

It is, however, fair to say that its editor was loaded down with the 
labors and responsibilities of another office. As publisher of all the 
books of the denomination, which included those coming to us from 
English Methodism, Mr. Soule had quite enough to do without try- 
ing to perform the uncongenial duties of a magazine editor. He also, 
without doubt, devoted his time and strength to the book department ; 
for in this a large amount of money had been invested ; and his first 
ambition seemed to be to make this investment a success. In his 
hands, too, it was a success ; for both money and influence were made 
for the cause by the works he issued from the press. It has been said, in- 
deed, that the writings and fame of the authors thus put to print — those 
of the Wesleys, of Fletcher, of Adam Clarke, and of the other great 

English Wesleyan writers — were enough to insure the fortune of any 
31 



526 Methodist Bishops. 

publishing house, however it might have been conducted ; and it has 
been also stated that Mr. Sonle, though methodical, laborious, and ear- 
nest, no less than honest in his work, was out of his element as an office 
man and publisher of books. There is probablv some truth in tliis 
remark. But it must be admitted, on the other hand, that he carried 
with him the good solid argument of success ; and this, in the minds 
of many people, is a sure defense against every possible complaint. 
It is, however, well known that Mr. Soule had made up his mind not 
CO accept a re-election to the office of Book Agent. 

When the time came for putting this resolution into practical 
effect, as it did at the General Conference of 1820, the retiring editor 
and j)ublisher found no occasion to say or do much about it; for the 
delegates, he discovered, had made up their minds to lift him out of 
this semi-secular work and raise him to the office of a Bishop. But 
the leading question < of that Conference was, whether those men 
known in the Connection as Presiding Elders, who were heads of the 
districts into which all the annual Conferences were divided, should 
be appointed by the Bishop of a Conference or elected by its voting 
members. A long and boisterous debate ensued. Clergymen, indeed, 
are confessedly more boisterous, at least more stubborn, in such debates, 
than more worldly men ; for they know nothing, and care less, about 
mere expediency ; and their positions are more apt to be taken on 
what they severally deem the solid ground of conscience, to ignore or 
betray which would seem to them to be the abandonment of all gen- 
uine religious character. This sort of conscientious stubbornness pre- 
vailed on this occasion. Days and days were spent in the grand dis- 
cussion. Soule, though knowing himself to be a candidate for the 
highest dignity within the denomination, made no concealment of his 
views upon the subject. He mixed freely and fully in the long and 
loud debate. He was liimself, indeed, both long and loud in argu- 
ment, but ever dignified and unpersonal. He struck at the thoughts 
offered, not at the men who offered them. He was never known, 
under any circumstances, to undertake to weaken the effect of a man's 
opinions by weakening him. But the blows delivered by him at this 
Conference on the great question are still remembered as falling like 
strokes of lightning, or bursting thunderbolts, upon the heads of the 
party in opposition. They wished to make the office of Presiding 



Joshua Soule. 527 

Elder elective by tlic Annual Conferences. Sonle took the ground 
that that would break the unity, and thus ruin the efficiency, of the 
episcopal supervision. But his opponents, planting themselves on tlie 
republican model of our national and State governments, prevailed 
against him in the final vote. The presiding eldership was to be 
made elective ; and the natural consequence would have been, in an 
assembly governed by political ideas, that Soule's candidacy for the 
episcopacy would be at once abandoned. This body of Methodist 
clergymen, however, were not politicians. Believing Soule to have 
been actuated by conscientious motives, as they themselves had been, 
they at once took up his case and elected him their Bishoj^. But tlie 
man thus dignified was not to be handled in this manner. Having 
come to the deliberate conclusion that no man could efficiently work 
the Methodist organization as a Bishop with his chief executive 
officers elected by a body over which he was to have no control, and 
in wdiich he had no voice, he promptly rose in his place and declined 
ordination. He had debated from principle ; and he now showed his 
electors that he wa^ cajDable of acting from no lower motive. 

Whatever may at the time have been thought of this quick decision, 
it must now be looked back to by the candid memorialist as one of 
the grandest acts within the limits of a long and noble life. It was 
an act of honest, unselfish, self-denying manhood. Mr. Soule had 
been elected by a combination of his coadjutors and opponents. His 
opponents, indeed, to a large extent, were the most active in his eleva- 
tion ; and he certainly ow^ed his election to their exertions, as they 
were a majority of the Conference. Such a compliment — first to vote 
against a man's I^olicy, then to elect him to the highest office — was 
probably never witnessed in any deliberative body before or since. It 
was a compliment to the man, and Soule thus clearly understood it. 

At the close of this General Conference of 1820 Mr. Soule re- 
entered the ranks of the traveling ministry, where his greatest work had 
been performed, and in the duties of which he felt so entirely at home. 
His record for the next four years is brief but honorable. For the 
year 1820 he was stationed in the city of ISTew York. The appoint- 
ment held over till 1821 ; and this is the year made memorable by the 
advent of that wonderful pulpit orator, the Bev. John Summerfield, 
who scattered the beauty and bloom of summer over every scene he 



528 Methodist Bishops. 

entered. As Soiile was then the crowned man of American Meth- 
odism in the national metropolis, it is a matter of interest to see how 
he received this inspired son of Irish Methodism, who at once became 
the idol of the thousands that flocked to hear him. Snmmerfield had 
been born in the very year of Sonle's entrance npon the ministry. 
Sonle was, therefore, the senior of the gifted Snmmerfield by jnst 
seventeen years, the yonng Irish orator being twenty-three, and the 
subject of this sketch about forty years of age. 

Mr. Soule, at the close of his first year, was re-appointed to the 
city of Xew York, and had the charge given him over all the work 
centering at that important point. From 'New York he went to 
Baltimore, a place of still higher position in the Methodist denom- 
ination than i^ew York itself, and here he was at once received as a 
man of no secondary character. He held in Baltimore the rank of 
preacher in charge of what was then known as the City Station ; and 
his sermons soon attracted general attention and made a strong im- 
pression on the public mind. By all religious people of every denomi- 
nation he was looked u23on as a very strong man. 

We now come, however, to the period of Mr. Soule's grandest 
triumph. The year 1824, the year of another General Conference, 
will always be looked to as the year of years in this great man's 
history. He was again a member of the General Conference, re|)re- 
senting therein the Baltimore Annual Conference. The reader lias 
only to call to mind the question and the scenes and debates of 1820, 
to understand the nature and import of the good man's victory. Let 
it be remembered that he was then elected to the episcopacy by those 
who had voted him down on the question of elective presiding elder- 
ships ; that he had opposed the measure with all his might, as a meas- 
ure subversive of the executive strength of the denomination ; that 
he had declared, in the most positive terms, that the work ceased to be 
a unit, and that consequently it could not prove a success with this sub- 
division, or rather destruction, of its executive force, lumbers of the 
leading members who had before voted against Mr. Soule now came 
to him and acknowledged their mistake. They confessed his prescience 
to be greater than their own. They even lauded him in the most 
unmeasured terms ; and begged him, now that the only question ever 
dividing them had been given up, to accept the office he had before, 



Joshua Soule. i529 

for conscience' sake, rejected. He was in due time ordained; and 
from that day the backwoods boy of the little town of Avon, in the 
wilds of Maine, was known to the world as Bishop Soule. 

It is no longer essential, therefore, to follow in detail the life of 
this distinguished clergyman. In his case, as in that of most great 
men, the charm continues while he is rising from obscurity to the 
summit of his power and fame ; for the career becomes monotonous 
when the summit level has been reached ; and the daily duties while 
crossing the liigh plain of the dusty years before him would be as 
wearisome to the reader as they doubtless were to the great man liim- 
self. From the day of his election, in 1824, to the memorable General 
Conference of 1844, a period of twenty years, he successfully per- 
formed the dry routine duties of his office ; and his only respite from 
these episcopal cares was his brief visit to the British Wesleyan Con- 
ference in 1842, as the representative of the General Conference of 
the United States. After f uliilKng that appointment, he made a short 
tour of travel in the British Islands, and went a little way into France. 
He was, of course, always addressed by his American traveling com- 
panion as Bishop ; and this circumstance led to some very amusing 
incidents ; for the natives on hearing him thus called at once began 
addressing him as My Lord, a title which his great majesty of carriage 
would very readily support. At the decease of Bishop Roberts, 
March 26, 1843, he became senior Bishop ; and it w^as about this time, 
or a little earlier, that his natural dignity of bearing began to seem 
somewhat oppressive. President Fisk never admired the Bishop's lofty 
manner, and he used to tell with great humor how magnificently the 
prelate once proclaimed the superiority for the cure of a cold which a 
tea made of catnip possessed over any sort of decoction that could be 
made from tansy. Stories used to be told, too, about the inconsistency 
in matters of taste between his instructions and his practices. Once, in 
the village of Winthrop, in the State of Maine, in 1838, there was 
held an annual missionary meeting. Bishop Soule was invited to 
make the first speech ; he was to be followed by three or four other 
speakers, one of wdiom was the writer of this memoir. The services 
began at three o'clock in the afternoon ; the Bishop at first declined 
speaking, on the reasonable ground that he was worn out with travel 
and Conference labor ; but, waiving this objection, he finally took the 



530 Methodist Bishops. 

platform and spoke till nearly sundown. Excepting wliat had to be 
said in taking up the collection, there was not another word spoken. 
ISText day lie went to Kent's Hill, the seat of the Maine Conference 
that year. On addressing the candidates, he warned them at great 
length, and in a powerful voice, against speaking "too loud and too 
long,'' very justly saying, that true eloquence required only strength 
of voice enough to be easily heard, and that lengthy discourses were 
apt to weary rather than impress an audience. The Kev. Joseph 
Hawkes, still a member of that Conference, was then one of the can- 
didates addressed. On returning to his seat he remarked to the writer, 
that, as the Bishop was to preach next day, he meant to time him. 
He did time him, and the report he made was, that the Bishop spoke 
just forty minutes before he came to " firstly." 

These, however, were trivial blemishes in a great man's life. A 
more serious matter occurred at the General Conference in Isew York 
in 1844. Bishop Andrew had married a woman owning slaves. The 
Conference wished him to desist from the exercise of his episcopal 
functions till this incumbrance should be removed. He declined the 
proposition ; his Southern brethren in the Conference sustained him ; 
and the Church was in consequence divided. Bishop Soule adhered 
to the M. E. Church, South, which received him with open arms, but 
without expecting much labor from him. In 1848 he ap23eared at tlie 
General Conference of the M. E. Church at Pittsburgh, but was 
received and treated as a visitor, not as a Bishop or even delegate. In 
1853 he made an episcopal tour in California, to see what could be 
done for Southern Methodism in that quarter, but without results. 
He returned with disappointment ; and being now a woi*n-out man, 
he soon after retired from all public duties at the ripe age of seventy- 
two. Bemaining in this condition of honorable retirement for the 
space of fourteen years, respected and revered by all, he departed this 
life on March 6, 1867, in the city of ^STashville, where he lies by the 
side of his wife, who had died some years before. His grave may 
be found in the city cemetery — his name on the records of a great 
and growing denomination — his memory and the fruit of his noble 
life in every quarter and section of the country he loved, labored for, 
and adorned. 




EI^^Jl^l^Ei ©a^mmil^W. ^aldo 






^ 6^'/hdk^y/c/:M/^77ij'/^(^a cy^o'/^/c 



James Osgood Andrew. 



BY PKOF. W. G. WILLIAMS, A.M. 



JAMES OSGOOD ANDEEW was bom in Wilkes County, Ga., 
in 1Y94. His fatiier was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. He was a man of deep piety and consecration to the work 
of the ministerial office. The mother was a fitting companion for the 
Methodist itinerant that her husband was. She cheerfully assumed 
and faithfully performed a large share in the training of their numer- 
ous family. Their children, both by precept and parental example, 
were trained " in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." James 
Osgood was early susceptible to these Christian influences. He be- 
came a member of the Church of his parents at ten, and was licensed 
to preach seven years later, when he had reached his eighteenth 
year. 

Like most of our preachers at that early period, the father had 
but limited means, and hence could not afford an extensive educa- 
tional training for his promising son. But an original mind, exten- 
sive reading, and fine powers of observation, went far in later life 
to supply his early deficiencies. He inherited the genius of industry, 
which, with strong natural powers, sanctified by a deep piety, gave 
him a career of great influence and usefulness. 

Immediately after being licensed to preach he joined the South 
Carolina Conference in 1812. He was recommended to the Annual 
Conference for admission on trial by the late Rev. Dr. Lovick Pierce, 
then Presiding Elder of the district. Mr. Pierce felt a deep, almost 
paternal, interest in the awkward, little-tutored boy whom he intro- 
duced to the itinerancy. He thought he saw the elements of growth 
and power, and it soon became a great delight to him to note the 
rapid unfolding and increasing usefulness of his young friend and 
brother. 

It is a significant comment upon our system of ministerial training 
that under it a mere boy, with the bare rudiments of a common- 



5 3 J: Methodist Bishops. 

school education, can rise in a few years to take liigli rank among 
the preachers of his day. Mr. Andrew rose to be the peer of such 
men as OHn and Capers, whose rare powers and scholarship adorned, 
in those days, the pnlpit of our then united Methodism. 

The first twenty years of his ministerial life were years of con- 
stant labor amid the duties of pastor and Presiding Elder. From the 
first he endeared himself to those among whom he labored by his 
social disposition, popular style of preaching, and zeal for the con- 
version of souls. He won the confidence and friendship of men, and 
then used his power to open the way for Christ to the heart. Many 
are the incidents, told by loving friends, of his early ministry, illus- 
trative of his power, tact, and devotion. One is related of him while 
a young circuit preacher in the year 1825, at Fern's Bridge, Ga. A 
young convert under his ministry was holding a series of prayer- 
meetings in a country school-house near his circuit, and was very 
much annoyed and hindered by the opposition of an infidel, who 
violated the order of the meeting and threatened still greater inter- 
ruption. Mr. Andrew, passing to an appointment, was induced by 
he knew not what, to turn aside from his own and attend this meet- 
ing. He found the condition of things as described. He took charge 
of the meeting of the evening, giving out the hymn " Shall I, for fear 
of feeble man," etc. He then led in prayer; kneeling beside the 
infidel, he prayed mightily to God to convict and convert the wicked 
man at his side. When he concluded he tapped the man on the back 
and said : '' Xow you pray for yourself." The man did pray. The 
Lord had answered Mr. Andrew's prayer, and he who had been the 
disturbing element was now crying earnestly for salvation. He was 
converted that night, became an efficient minister of the Gospel, and 
Mr. Andrew always believed, as he had a right to, that God had sent 
him to that meeting on that night. 

By nature the subject of this sketch was a man of large sympa- 
thies. His heart sympathized in the sufferings and trials of all about 
him. As he grew in experience and rose to high position, he ever 
turned back in sympathy and helpfulness to his younger brethren in 
the ministry. He remembered his own early struggles and embar- 
rassments, and was ever prompt to speak the encouraging word. 
The following beautiful tribute to Bishop Andrew's delicacy of 



James Osgood Andrew. 535 

feeling and sympathetic nature, is by Bishop Pierce, of the Church 

South : 

At diflferent times, and under some circumstances to me peculiarly trying, I 
was indebted to hiui for judicious advice and a truly fatherly interest. In the 
second year of my ministry I was sent as a junior preacher with him to Augusta, 
Ga. I lived in his house, saw him daily, mingled with him in the ease and 
freedom of domestic life; and there my boyish awe of the great preacher soft- 
ened into filial reverence ; my admiration resolved itself into love. The thought 
that I was to preach alternately with such a man was a source of alarm and 
torture to me. For weeks and weeks, when my turn came round, I besought 
him to go out to spare me the embarrassment of his pi-esence. With kind, for- 
bearing sympathy he yielded to my wishes. He remembered his own struggles 
with timidity, and he deferred to the foolish and yet real fears of his youthful 
assistant; but after a season he announced to me that his sense of duty could 
not longer allow him to absent himself from the house of God, and to relieve 
me, he gave me advice, the assurance of his assistance, and the promise of his 
prayers. 

Bishop Andrew took a deep interest in the missionary work of 
the Church. He sought, by all the influence he could wield, to 
awaken his own Conference, and after he became a Bishop the Con- 
ferences wherever he visited them, to greater zeal in behalf of the 
foreign and home fields. It is said that the greatest displays of his 
eloquence were when appealing to the Church in the interest of those 
without the light of the Gospel. He w^as much concerned for the 
Church on the Pacific slope in the days when, in eager quest for 
gold, men seemed to forget God and his laws. He wanted to see 
that region, so blessed with rich mineral deposits, have the -greater 
blessing of the dominion of Christ in men's hearts. In 1855 he 
visited California, and wrote a series of letters to the 'New Orleans 
Advocate, discussing the morals and Cliurch interests of that State. 
In l^ovember of the same year he presided at the North Carolina Con- 
ference, and at the Missionary Anniversary made one of his charac- 
teristic appeals. On this occasion he plead that the Gospel might be 
carried into the neighboring South American States. He urged that 
" the opening door in the Spanish States south of us should be entered 
at once, and the ' saddle-bag ' pioneers take possession of the land in 
the name of Christ." 

But any account of Bishop Andrew would be only partial w^hich 



536 Methodist Bishops. 

did not speak somewhat in detail of liis views and conduct witli 
regard to the once prevailing institution of American slavery. He 
was born in that part of tlie Federal Union where slavery existed 
and was protected by the laws. Not in his own Methodist home, but 
at those of the neighbors, he met the slave every day. With his own 
eyes he must have beheld the revolting features of the system. He 
was reared in the bosom of a Church which had pronounced against 
it from the beginning. The position of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church as touchiug the monster evil and sin of slavery was never 
equivocal. Her General Conference steadily bore record against it. 
The Discipline branded it as against the law of God. But the Church 
made one concession. She tolerated the evil among her members for 
policy's sake — a sadly mistaken policy, as tlie sequel revealed, in the 
manifest rebuke of God. But, though in the slave States slave- 
holders had membership in the Church, the ministry held aloof from 
all participation in the trafic. The sentiment was too deep and posi- 
tive for him who took in his hand the sacred emblems of the body 
and blood of the great Emancipator to hold by the same hand, as 
common chattels, the body and blood of a fellow-man. 

But slavery was taking deej)er root as the years went on, and our 
Church in the South became more and more infected by it. Apolo- 
gists, if not defenders of the system, were gradually increasing, and 
sentiment became more lax. Meanwhile the antislavery sentiment 
of the ISTorth was growing more determined. With every year it 
became intenser. With every year upon this issue the Church in the 
I^orth and the Church in the South were receding from each other. 
It needed little foresight to discern the coming crisis. Clouds were 
already in the sky, and others gathering, and the storm must soon 
break forth. In the hour of threatening, to the nation as well as to 
the Church, Brovidence assigned a leading part to the Methodist 
Episcopal organization. More by accident, however, than by his own 
choice, we believe. Bishop Andrew figured conspicuously in these 
exciting scenes. We do not learn that in all his career, up to the 
General Conference of ISM, he had ever been the voluntary spokes- 
man or champion of the pro-slavery element of the Church. He was 
not an agitator in its behalf; nor, on the other hand, did he ever 
criticise or denounce the system. We know not that he ever uttered 



James Osgood Andrew. 537 

an abolition word. He gave not the might of his eloquence and great 
influence to break the shackles from his fellow-man. He accepted the 
institution as he found it, and sought to make no change. But there 
are some things we ought not to forget. The society in which he 
was born and reared was closely identified with slavery. Both 
socially and financially it was committed to the system. Even in that 
part of the Church in which he grew up and always lived it was 
allowed and sanctioned. The natural effect upon the youth growing 
up amid such surroundings, we must admit, was to obscure the vision 
and soften the features of the great wrong. But although, as we 
have said, he expressed no condemnation — although he sought to effect 
no change in the political and social condition of the black man — 
Bishop Andrew manifested a deep interest in liis spiritual welfare. 
He preached to the slave and pointed him to the Lamb of God. He 
says of himself : 

When I was yet a mere boy I taught -a Sunday-school of slaves, in which I 
taught a number of them to read, and from that period till this day I have de- 
voted my energies to the promotion of their happiness and salvation. With all 
my influence, in public, in private, with my tongue, with my pen, I have assidu- 
ously endeavored to promote their present and eternal happiness. 

The following extract from the " Southern Methodist Quarterly " 
is to the same point : 

At the session of the South Carolina Conference, early in 1832, a decided 
and memorable impulse was given to the missionary spirit, particularly among 
the preachers, by a speech delivered at the anniversary of the Missionary Society by 
the Rev. James O. — now Bishop — Andrew. Professor Parks, of Virginia, was in 
attendance at the Conference. His fame as an orator had preceded him, and 
the highest expectations were excited at the announcement tliat he would address 
the meeting. 

After the usual preparatory exercises Mr. Andrew was introduced to the 
meeting, and read the following resolution: "That while we consider false views 
of religion as being every way mischievous, and judge from the past that much 
evil has resulted from that cause among the slave population of this country, we 
are fully persuaded that it is not only safe, but highly expedient to society at 
large, to furnish the slaves, as fully as possible, with the means of true scriptural 
instruction and the worship of God." We have heard many good and clever 
speeches in our time, a few that deserved to be called great; but foremost in our 
recollection stands the remarkable speech made by Bishop Andrew on that occasion. 



5^8 Methodist Bishops. 

He drew a picture of the irreligious, neglected plantation negro. He pointed out 
his degradation, rendered but the deeper and darker from the fitful and tran- 
sient flashings-up of desires which felt after God — scintillations of the immortal 
blood-bought spirit within him, which ever and anon gleamed amid the dark- 
ness of his untutored mind. He pointed to the converted negro — the noblest 
prize of the Gospel — the most unanswerable proof of its efficiency, etc." 

With sentiments and a record upon the slavery question such as 
the foregoing reveals, the name of James O. Andrew was presented 
to the General Conference of 1832 for the office of Bishop. He was 
elected on the first ballot, receiving the highest number of votes. 
Bishop Emory was elected by the same Conference. The former was 
the representative of the South, the latter of the JN'orth. Bishop 
Andrew was as acceptable with the Northern Conferences as could be 
any man with Southern feelings and sentiments in those days. He 
had never had any personal connection w^ith slavery : and was regarded 
a man of moderate views and high personal character. During the 
twelve-years' interval betM^een the General Conferences of 1832 and 
18M he traveled extensively throughout the whole connection, though 
his episcopal appointments were mostly in the South. Pie lost the 
wife of his youth and mother of his children during the quadrennium 
preceding the General Conference of 1844. A few weeks before the 
assembling of this General Conference he married again. His second 
wife, a Georgian lady, was the owner of several slaves. The report 
that one of our BishojDS had thus, by his marriage, become a slave- 
holder, caused great excitement among the delegates of the North, 
many of whom had first heard of it on their way to or after arriving 
at New York, where the Conference w^as held. It was plain that the 
hour of the culminating struggle between the antislavery and pro- 
slavery elements of the Cliurch was at hand. In the early days of the 
session the Episcopal Committee waited upon the Bishop and learned 
the fact of his slave connection from his own lips. For twelve days the 
case was before the Conference. Perhaps no other General Confer- 
ence has witnessed as stormy debates as this discussion elicited. It 
was a battle in which was involved, as some men thought, a principle 
dearer than life. The talent of the North and South was there. Every 
weapon of logic and wit, of sarcasm and impassioned utterance, was 
wielded by the respective partisans of the controversy for many days. 



James Osgood Andrew. 539 

The question of General Conference powers over the episcopal 
officer, its right to deprive of office or sns])end, its power mandatory 
or advisory, these were the chief points of law in the case, which were 
discussed with eminent ability. 

The moral phase of the rpiestion, that is, Bishop Andrew's act of 
marriage under the circumstances, and how it would aft'ect the Church, 
were also much and warmly debated. Upon this phase of the case the 
following points were urged by the Northern delegates : 

1. The Church always had testified against slavery. 

2. It only tolerates it through necessity. 

3. ISTon-slave-holding Bishops were never unacceptable in the South. 

4. Slave-holding Bishops could not be tolerated in the INortli. 

5. It w^ould encourage a slave-holding ministry. 

6. A Bishop belongs to the whole Church. 

7. It would sanction slavery. 

8. No necessity impelled Bishop Andrew. 

9. The South formerly opposed it. 

The embarrassment of the case w^as deeply felt by all parties. 
The wife of Bishop Andrew had inherited the slaves from her former 
husband, who had secured them to her by a deed of trust, which made 
manumission impossible. The law of Georgia required that the slaves 
be held or transferred to another to be held as such, under heavy and 
painful penalties. The only extrication for Bishop Andrew seemed 
to be removal from the State of Georgia. 

Throughout all the heated discussion all personal reference to 
Bishop Andrew was in kindliest words and manner. In his own 
speech, after the trial had been in progress for ten days, he testifies to 
the uniform courtesy and kindness with which he had been alluded to 
personally. The following extract from his speech on that occasion 
may interest the reader of this biographical sketch : 

At length, however, I came into the possession of slaves, and I am a slave- 
holder, (as I have already explained to the Conference,) and I cannot help myself. 
It is known that I have waded tlirough deep sorrows at the South during tlie last 
four years. I have buried the wife of my youth and the mother of my children, 
who needed a friend and a mother. I sought to make my home a happy one, 
and I have done so. Sir, I have no apology to make. It has been said, I did 
this thing voluntarily, and with my eyes open. I did so deliberately and in the 



540 Methodist Bishops. 

fear of God. I might have resorted to a trick by making over these slaves to 
my wife before marriage, or by doing as a friend suggested, having my wife 
make over these negroes to her children, se-curing to herself an annuity from 
them, who might have abused and maltreated them. Sir, my conscience would 
not let me do this. Strange as it may seem to the brethren, I am a slave-holder 
for conscience' sake. 

He concluded by asking that the discussion conne to an end. The 
resnlt was inevitable, and why delay it longer ? The case was ended 
by a vote of 111 to 69, adopting the following resolution : 

Resolved, That it is the sense of this General Conference that he [Bishop An- 
drew] desist from the exercise of this ofRce so long as tliis imj^ediment remains. 

Bishop Andrew^ retired from New York deeply afflicted by the 
action of the Conference. He thought he had been harshly dealt 
wdth. He did not attend the Bishops' meeting, and received no 
appointment for the following year. 

In May, 1S45, a convention of the Southern Conferences met in 
Louisville. Bishops Soule and Andrew j^resided over their delibera- 
tions, while the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was organized. 
Bishop Andrew adhered to the Southern Church, and traveled through- 
out its bounds, performing episcopal labor until 1866. After the 
death of Bishop Soule, in 1867, he was the senior Bishop of his 
Church, and did much by his experienced counsels and unceasing 
labor to advance its interests. As he grew to old age he grew more 
and more in the affections of the Church he had so long served. He 
came at last to be the patriarch in the midst of his people. Con- 
ferences throughout the Connection greeted his coming with cordial 
welcome. He was honored and beloved by colleagues, preachers, and 
laj^men. At the General Conference of 1866, having passed the 
allotted age of threescore and ten, and conscious of his growing infirm- 
ities, he asked the Conference to relieve him from active duties, and 
retired from the regular work. But even in the feebleness of the 
five years which he yet lived after his retirement he could not refrain 
from preaching Christ on all occasions wdien his strength permitted. 
He would visit the churches where he had preached, and talk to the 
people of Jesus and glory, and, thinking to see them no more in the 
fiesh, he would shake hands w^ith them in farewell, and bid them come 
on to heaven. 



James Osgood Andrew. 5J:1 

At the residence of his son-in-law, in Mobile, Ala., under the roof 
of his own daughter, on the second day of March, 1871, Bishop 
Andrew died. He had lived seventy-seven years in the world, had been 
a member of the Methodist Church sixty-seven years, a preacher fifty- 
nine years, and a Bishop thirty-nine years. His death-chamber was 
made glorious by the presence of God. He was serene and happy as 
he rested on the margin of the river. He had " the peace of God 
which passeth all understanding." He spoke much of his " going 
home," and of a happy reception there through Christ. To his dear 
friend Bishop Pierce he sent the following message : " Tell him that 
I love him, and that I have a home on the other side." He also re- 
quested that Bishop Pierce should preach his funeral sermon. He 
sent word to his colleagues, the Bishops : '' Tell them that I would 
like to meet them in May, but I cannot, for I am fully persuaded that 
my time to go is near at hand ; that in them I have the fullest confi- 
dence, and die rejoicing that God has put the Church in their care 
and superintendency ; and that they must always live in love and 
harmony." In this trancpil state he lingered for several days, expect- 
ing to go at any moment. His bed w^as surrounded by his children, 
grandchildren, and many of his brethren in the ministry. At last, 
when he knew himself going, he turned to his weeping relatives and 
friends and exclaimed, "God bless you all ! Victory, victory ! " and 
died. 

Bishop Andrew is described as of moderate height and of full but 
not plethoric habit. His round body and broad, full chest bespoke 
great physical strength. His face was of the Boman mold, his coun- 
tenance placid and grave, indicating great self-possession. His eye 
was gray and ordinarily calm and lusterless, but kindling ever when 
his characteristic vein was sprung. 

Intellectually he was in many respects a great man. His mind 
was comprehensive and swift in its operation. His judgment Avas 
sound, strong, and discriminating. Hence, he was always regarded as 
a safe and wise counselor. He wielded the pen with great facility. 
His two published works, " Household Government " and " Miscella- 
nies," reveal the author's rich, easy style of composition. He was a 
great reader, and gathered large stores of information ; but for the 
want of early training w^as nev6r very methodical. He digested the 



542 Methodist Bishops. 

material whicli he gathered in a waj peculiar to himseK, never failing, 
however, to give it the stamp of his own personality. 

As a preacher he was unique. His style was his own. It was 
unstudied, but free, full, and flowing. He never dwelt in propositions ; 
had nothing to do with divisions, firstly, secondly, thirdly, and lastly. 
He dealt w^ith one great leading idea, concentrating upon it his won- 
derful power of amphfication. He loathed the bony bareness of pul- 
pit " skeletons,'' and declared his unwilhngness to limit his range of 
thought to the " textual trisections of anatomical sermonizers." His 
voice was deep-toned and impressive, speedily arresting and enchaining 
the attention of his audience. A writer says : " The first half of his 
sermons was always the best — often grand, imperial in the range of 
thought, the sweep of imagination, the wealth of words. The latter 
half was commonly colloquial, simple, sometimes commonplace. It 
seemed to me that in prayer and meditation and communion w^ith 
God, he had ascended some lofty elevation, some bright mount of 
vision ; and when he entered the pulpit and announced his text he 
launched out, on bold, broad pinions, like an angel flying through the 
midst of the heavens." In his personal religious experience he was 
never demonstrative. His religion was deep and quiet. From the 
day he became a minister lie never turned aside to pursue any other 
calHng. He loved the work his Master had given him to do, and 
made it his one business. He knew by exj^erience the trials and sor- 
rows and disappointments of a preacher's life, yet on his dying bed 
he said, that if he could live his life over again, he w^ould be a Meth- 
odist preacher still — the only change, greater loyalty to the Lord 
Jesus. 




Ensrsv-iij- TKo>£.WelcJc fPhilada-) from an onimal pictuie 



[^ E ^L • <J] ® ^ f^ E A iffi 0= \ ©.10). 



John Early. 



BY REV. L E O N I D A S .R O S S E R, D. D. 



JOHN EAELY was born in Bedford County, Ya., January 1, 1786, 
and died at liis own home in Lynclibnrgli, Ya., November 5, 1873, 
aged nearly eighty-eight years — having lived almost a century in the 
most eventful period of American Methodism — an era of moral hero- 
ism second in resplendence only to the apostolic. 

His parents were Baptists. At eighteen years of age, on April 
22, 1804, he was converted under the powerful ministry of Stith Mead 
— joined the Methodist Church — was licensed to preach in 1806, and 
under the direction of the presiding elder began his ministry among 
the slaves of President Jefferson, and the poor. He w^as admitted on 
trial into the Yirginia Conference in 1807, in 1809 was ordained dea- 
con, in 1811 was ordained elder; and in 1813 and 1814 Bishops 
Asbury and M'Kendree, perceiving his administrative genius, ap- 
pointed him Presiding Elder of the Meherrin District, extending then 
from Richmond to Lynchburgh. In 1815 he located to adjust his 
temporal affairs to his sacred work, and returned, with " every weight " 
laid aside, to his old district in 1821. 

Now his zeal knew no bounds. His district flamed from end to 
end with great revivals. His eye scanned the wdiole field, and like a 
general he marshaled and led the hosts to triumph on every hand. I 
quote from authentic records : " On the Greenville Circuit he received 
five hundred members into the Church. At the memorable camp- 
meeting at Prospect, Prince Edward County, Ya., to the august glory 
of which Weems, in his 'Life of Washington,' makes special refer- 
ence, it is said, one thousand persons were converted in seven days." 
A volume might be written descriptive of the extraordinary revivals 
that attended and followed his labors wherever he w^nt at this pente- 
costal period of Yirginia Methodism. Meantime, his ability for organ- 
ization and administration shone with equal luster, and was adequate 
to the demands of revival. What he reaped he gathered straightway 
32 



546 Methodist Bishops. 

into the garner. Moreover, his great soul now flamed also with mis- 
sionary fire. He organized five branches of the Missionary Society, 
and devised four others on his district. Hear him in his own words : 
" Cold is the heart that takes no interest in the missionary cause, espe- 
cially if it be found among the prophets ! Let my right hand forget 
its cunning, if I forget thee, O, Jerusalem. ! Let my tongue cleave 
to the roof of my mouth, if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief 

jo.y!" 

From 1824 to 1826, inclusive, he was Conference missionary ; in 

1827 he was one of the three preachers on Bedford Circuit, and in 

1828 he was left without appointment at his own request. From 1829 
to 1832 he was again at work as Presiding Elder. From 1833 to 1840, 
inclusive, he was Agent for Kandolph Macon College. He was one 
of the committee, in 1825, who drew up a report on education, out of 
which the college grew. He was for many years the President of its 
Board of Trustees. From 1841 to 1846 he again appears as Presiding 
Elder on the Lynchburgh and Petersburg!! Districts. This brought 
him down to the first General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, held in Petersburgh, Ya., in 1846. 

In 1812, but five years after his admission on trial into the Virginia 
Conference, he was sent as one of the eleven delegates to the first 
delegated General Conference, which met in the City of 'New York 
in 1812. He was a member of the General Conferences from 1828 
to 1844. To his practical wisdom we owe, what have been aptly termed 
those time-saving and convenient institutions. Standing Committees. 

The first General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, to meet the demands of the Southern Church for its publica- 
tions — the N^orthern Book Concern not having paid the Southern 
Church its share — resolved on the enterprise of a Book Agency. A 
man of superior tact, experience, and capacity, was required, and John 
Early was elected as the man needed. He opened his office in Bich- 
mond, and carried on the work successfully until 1854, when the 
Publishing House was established in Nashville. In this agency he 
continued till he was elected Bishop, at the General Conference which 
met in Columbus, Ga., in 1854. Unaltered in resolution, undimin- 
ished in zeal, and inflexible in integrity, he continued actively engaged 
in the duties of the episcopacy till, at the General Conference in JSTew 



John Early. 547 

Orleans, in 1866, with Bishops Soiile and Andrew, he was voted a super- 
annnated relation. He w^as now^ in his eightieth year. But he did not 
cease to w^ork, to the last demand of liis high office, and the last limit 
of his mind and body, till he died. 

I now qnote at length from the " ti'ibnte " of the Yirginia Con- 
ference to his memory, prej^ared by a special committee, and recorded 
on the Conference Journal : 

In 1866 — the year of his superannuation — he was severely hurt in a railroad 
accident, and for awhile it was feared he would die. The vigor of his consti- 
tution, however, triumphed, but left him greatly disabled. From that time on- 
ward to his death his physical forces gradually failed, and his public ministra- 
tions became less frequent. The opinion has often been expressed that but for 
the shock which his nervous system sustained by tliat accident, he would proba- 
bly have reached his hundredth year. His tenacity of purpose and resoluteness 
of will often sustained hira when other signs prophesied imminent death. The 
weight of years, and the repeated shocks of an old malady, at last wore him 
down, and on the morning of JSTovember 5, 1873, at a quarter to nine o'clock, he 
sweetly and calmly fell asleep, and passed away to the le wards of a well-spent 
life. For twelve months or more before his death he was unable to attend upon 
any of the public services of the Church. But through all his long confinement, 
and amid all its alternations of suflFering and repose, he manifested a wonderful 
cheerfulness, patience, and resignation. The secret of these was found in his 
abiding, unshaken faith in God. He never seemed for a moment to question 
either the wisdom or goodness of God in his dealings with hira. 

As to death, he regarded his life-work as a preparation for it, and betrayed 
no fear of its approach. When he spoke of it, it was with a calm composure, and 
when he looked beyond it, it was often with the joyful anticipation of assured 
victory, and glorious greetings of the loved ones who had preceded him. There 
were several things which came out with such pleasing emphasis during the last 
years of his life, and down to the last week thereof, that they deserve mention 
in this paper. 

First. We notice the readiness and zest with which he always entered into 
any act of religious worship. The visits of Christian friends, and especially 
his brethren in the ministry, the .singing of the songs of Zion, and prayer around 
his family altar, or at his bedside, never failed to arouse the deeper responses of 
his soul. 

Second. The frequency and fervor with which he spoke of his being at peace 
with his Maker and all men, were often touching, and especially to those who 
knew of the many trying and stormy periods of his active life. His noted 
strength of opinions, and independent boldness in their expression, had often 
led men to misconstrue his motives, misinterpret his spirit, and form harsh judg- 



548 Methodist Bishops. 

ments concerning him, and therein to antagonize him in both feeling and action. 
•But over all these asperities, engendered by such conflict of judgments, his soul 
had triumphed, and its lioly impulses had gathered in peaceful benediction upon 
all men. 

Another feature marking him was, his fatherly spirit toward his younger 
brethren in the ministry. For them his tenderness seemed to deepen as his days 
grew apace; and his respectful and even deferential manner toward them gave 
a mellowing charm to his intercourse with them. 

Then, too, there was conspicuous to the last his deep interest in the general 
prosperity of the Ciuirch. Truly his soul loved our Zion. In the opening up of 
our mission fields, and especially that in Mexico — in the growing prosperity of 
our educational interests, and especially that of Randolph Macon College — in 
the success of the ministry — in the signs of a growing spirit of unity between 
the different Protestant Churches — in the welfare of the young — he ever took 
tlie warmest interest, and of all these he was often wont to speak, and in such 
terms as showed the fires of a holy zeal still burning upon the altar of his heart, 
and they burned there to the last. Of him it may be truly said: "He had 
foui?ht a good fight, and kept the faith." The result was, his end was peace. 
Quietly, from the bosom of his family, and from the home which had sheltered 
him for fifty years, he passed away to his heavenly home. 

His death produced a profound impression upon the community of Lynch- 
buro-h. There, where he had been so long and so well known, his character had 
made a deep impression. 

Presidents of the United States, governors of his own beloved State, poli- 
ticians and citizens, liad time iind again invoked his supei-ior practical wisdom 
for the management of important civil trusts, but he yielded to none save in an 
incidental way. Not that he was Avanting in devotion to the material as well as 
the spiritual prosperity of his beloved State. But it is a significant fact, and 
one which serves to illustrate his remarkable character, that, while he responded 
to some of these calls, he never allowed them to interfere with his ministerial 
duties- nor did his participation in any public State interests compromise his 
standing and influence as a Christian minister. The natural result was, respect 
had blended with esteem until it ripened into veneration for him. 

To strength of opinion and fearlessness in its expression, he liad so uniformly 
added evidence of integrity and highmindedness as a Christian, that all classes, 
liowever diff"erent in their opinions, had learned to cherish him as a man, 
as a patriot, as a Christian, and as a faithful minister of the Gospel of Christ. 
When he died, therefore, public sentiment testified a great and good man had 
fallen. 

His funeral obsequies furnished another evidence of the high esteem in which 
he was held. The closing of business houses and post-ofiice; the adjournment 
by its judge of the Circuit Court, then in session; the public and private 



John Early. 549 

expressions of grief, the large concourse at his funeral, all bespoke the public 
sense of loss occasioned by his death. 

In other cities and places such action was taken by our ministers and people 
as shows that our one sentiment as a Church is, "A prince and a great man 
has fallen in Israel.-' His name had long been a household word through our 
borders. He was one of the great historic characters of American Methodism, 
and especially of Southern Methodism. 

With this Conference he had been identified in labors and love for sixty- 
six years. But two of our members survive who entered the Conference 
before him, and none who so long were engaged in the active work of the 
ministry. 

We therefore feel ourselves bereaved of an honored leader and a conspicuous 
landmark. But our rejoicing is this: That he was not only spared to us so long, 
but that the grace of God abounded toward liis aged servant, and through a long 
and most eventful life enabled him to work a mighty work. Thousands were 
brought to Christ through his ministry ; and his flaming zeal, his unshaken devo- 
tion, and his peaceful end, are the beacon lights to guide us, and the heritage of 
our memories over which we are given to rejoice, and through which, though 
dead, he yet speaketh. Of him we may well say — 

" Servant of God, well done ! 
Rest from thy loved employ, 
The battle fought, the victory won, 
Enter thy Master's joy." 

In concluding this brief paper, we beg to offer the following resolutions : 

1. Resolved^ That we receive with profound sensibility this visitation of God in the removal, 
by death, of our beloved Bishop ; but recognizing the fact that our God doeth all things 
well, we bow with resignation to his sovereign will. 

2. Resolved, That we recognize in Bishop Early a man of rare endowments, embodying 
originality and boldness without rashness, quickness of perception with caution in the for- 
mation of opinions, and developing in his life a tenacity of purpose based upon deep con- 
victions, an unbending integrity, a fearless courage, a practical wisdom, and an executive 
power that gave to his character a force which was ever progressive yet always conserva- 
tive, and which stamped him at once as a leader among men. 

3. Resolved, That we recognize in him a Christian and a Minister of the Gospel of Christ, 
whose one watch-word through life was Duty, whose inspiration for the discharge of duty 
was Love, and who, in the performance of duty faltered at no sacrifice or danger, but through 
a long and most eventful life, in all the stations of high trust and grave responsibility to 
which his Church could call him, displayed a zeal worthy a disciple of Christ, and which 
showed that, in the work of the ministry, he amply met his highest ambition. 

4. Resolved, That in his life of piety we have a cherished example for our imitation of 
Christian devotedness, and in his peaceful death another cheering encouragement to fidelity 
in our work as ministers of the Gospel of Christ. 

5. Resolved, That as a Conference, with which he had been so long identified, we tender 
to his bereaved family our sympathies, and assurances of prayer for the richest blessings of 
their father's God to rest upon them. 



550 Methodist Bishops. 

Joliii Early was one of the fathers of American Methodism, whose 
career from his earliest ministry proceeded on the only basis of an 
increasing and enduring fame. For sixty years occupying an upper- 
most seat in the supreme councils of the Church, he faithfully dis- 
charged the solemn trusts connnitted to him with a frank, firm, and 
undisguised integrity — an integrity which he never compromitted, 
and a responsibility which he never evaded. Always conspicuous with 
the foremost in promptly and prudently resisting every innovation 
attempted in constitutional Methodism, and always an incorruptible 
friend to civil liberty, he boldly opposed every effort of the ministry 
or membership that in the remotest manner tended to encroachment 
upon the civil jurisdiction of the country. In doctrine and deed he 
always w^ore the fresh and fadeless complexion of evangelical truth 
and republican purity — a countenance of majesty that inspired the 
timid with courage, and caused even obtrusive leaders of party feuds to 
retire. The influence of his presence in Church and State was 
a sort of inspiration, exciting a confidence which the most pow- 
erful eloquence and massive logic could not strengthen, and the most 
formidable opposition could not diminish — an effluence of character, 
the product and supporter of truth itself. "A very rock and pillar of 
the Church." A word from him was the index of past Methodism, 
and his judgment prophetic of her future history. Possessing wisdom, 
prudence, experience, sagacity, and firmness^ — those higher qual- 
ities of true greatness — he was capable of estimating causes ever vig- 
orously at work, and of determining their momentous results, however 
remote. His was not the heart to quail, nor the will to waver, nor the 

* Dr. Bennett, editor of the '* Richmond Christian Advocate," who last year visited the 
site of " the Great Camp-meeting " already referred to, says : " We have heard an incident 
of this meeting which is well worth preserving. It is authentic, as it was related only a 
few days since by the venerable Bishop Early to Rev. E. N. S. Blogg. On Tuesday of the 
meeting, after a sermon by Mr. Early, among many other penitents a young lady presented 
herself at the altar. In a few moments a young man entered the altar with horse-whip in 
hand, and, seizing the young lady, who was his sister, took her away. On Friday following, 
while Mr, Early was in the midst of his sermon, a young man rushed up to the stand, and 
catching hold of the preacher's coat, cried out: 'Stop, sir, stop, sir, pray for me, pray for 
me!' The minister paused, and looking him in the face, said: 'No, sir, no, sir; go and 
bring that young lady back you took from the altar, and we will pray for you.' He left, 
and in a few moments after re-appeared leading the young lady to the pulpit, and again 
asked the preacher to pray for him. ' No, sir,' said Mr. Early, ' not here ; go and kneel 
down in the dust in the altar, and then we will pray for you.' They did so,- and soon both 
were happily converted." 



John Early. 551 

hand to tremble, nor the conscience to swerve, when those causes came 
before him for adjustment, direction, and control. Such as he was, 

" The rude and storm-vexed times required ; 
A pilot formed by nature to couimaud." 

He was no abstractionist in theory or in action. Analysis and 
synthesis were intuitive and simultaneous with him, coalesced instantly 
in action, and tlien his constitutional resolution yielded only to im- 
possibilities. His impetuosity in debate was grand. His soul was 
set on fire by the velocity of its purpose. He did not stop to con- 
sider whether he was impelled by his own innate energy or by the 
immediate inspiration of the Spirit, for the two so blended as to 
render the former indistinguishable, and both perfectly irresistible. 
Kor did he pause a moment for circumstance, obstacle, or opponent, 
however formidable, in the executions of his genius and faitli. Never 
was a leader less dependent on others for his resources, his triumphs, 
or his fame. 

Inspired by no provincial or selfish spirit, and profoundly con- 
scious of the wisdom and justice of his convictions, he was content to 
refer his verdict to the future, and in that verdict he has long since 
not only had the satisfaction of his friends, but the approval of his 
opposers. At his grave friend, rival, and opponent meet and unite 
in the recognition of his greatness and his merit. N^or is this all. In 
the impartial exercises of the legitimate functions of his episcopal 
office, when he sometimes encountered the dissatisfaction of strong 
men in some of the Conferences, the general prosperity of the Church 
that followed was the convincing attestation of the Spirit to his 
wisdom and integrity. I have often heard it observed by old men 
of the Virginia Conference that no Bishop ever stationed the 
preachers in that Conference more wisely than Bishop Early did. 

His preaching, if not always arrayed in the polished and refined 
graces of oratory, was always dignified, simple, and impressive, and 
sometimes, as in debate, perfectly overwdielming. He was convincing 
without the formulas of logic; persuasive without the embellishments 
of rhetoric ; captivating without the decorations of learning ; exhibiting 
native greatness, radiant with a resplendence divine. O, I have im- 
agined him at times like Peter on the day of Pentecost, or John, 



552 Methodist Bishops. 

preaching the eternal word from the " secret places of thunder." 
The majesty of truth and the dignity of the sacred office he never 
compromised. Like his own character, the truth mysteriously, in- 
sensibly, and ofttimes irresistibly, subdued the largest and most pol- 
ished assemblies, and thousands upon thousands of souls in his own 
Virginia were seals to his ministry. In confirmation of the power of 
his preaching in many places, he could employ the language of St. 
Paul to the Church at Corinth : '' Am I not an apostle ? ... If I be 
not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you : for the seal of 
mine apostleship are ye in the Lord." In a remarkable manner, truly, 
was his preaching accompanied with " signs, and wonders, and mighty 
deeds." Persons of all degrees and all tastes and all pursuits and all 
ages — the vain, the formal, the fashionable, the gay, the moral, the 
dissolute, the rich, the poor, the refined, the rude, the skeptic, the 
infidel, the backslider, the penitent, the Christian, the statesman, the 
politician, and the scholar — all have bowed before the uncontrollable 
power of his preaching. It is not surprising that from such scenes 
passing before his eyes his sagacity should have discovered and his 
judgment selected some of the most thrilling incidents, which he 
often interwove so appropriately and with such effect in his preaching 
as to elevate the soul to its acme of excitement — a faculty which few 
possess, and a method that sometimes produces more profound and 
lasting impression than the most brilliant oratory or the most per- 
suasive elocution. His soul was fathomless with genuine religious 
enthusiasm, ever ready to guide the believer, old and young, as in a 
chariot of fire toward heaven, or interpose between the wicked and 
the infinite depths of hell. His large blue eye flashed with a 
tranquil luster, his powerful voice, like the blast of a trumpet, roused' 
every feeling and shook every nerve ; his erect and imperial form 
heaved with irrepressible emotion ; and his countenance beamed with 
an intensity no words can describe, as he reached the crisis of his dis- 
courses and vanished in the dazzling glory that followed. 

In 1858 I heard him preach at Amherst Court-house, Ya. He 
was buoyant as in the prime of life. It was pleasant to follow his 
mind, gliding along, unfolding in beautiful simplicity and great force 
every part of the text. The sermon abounded with discriminations, 
illustrations, expositions, appeals, bursts of eloquence, flashes of rhet- 



John Early. ' 553 

oric, and flights of commanding oratory — all his own — exhibiting 
conspicuously the solid excellences of the earlier Methodist preachers, 
and unequaled by the artificial refinements of his elegant sons around 
him. Tlie crowded throng was overwhelmed by a sublime and ten- 
der power. He was one of the few men wdiose preaching filled me 
with unutterable tenderness and excited me to irrepressible tears. 

He was a revivalist of the highest order. It is generally conceded 
that he traveled more, had more souls converted under his ministry, 
and received more persons into the Church, than any of his contem- 
poraries. Within one step of Wesley, inasmuch as he received the 
prophet's mantle from Asbury, lie bore the torch of revival down to 
our day, and left it in our hands to illumine distant ages. Probably 
more ministers were converted under his preaching than can be claimed 
by any other man in America. O the greetings when he entered 
heaven ! And his crown on the coronation day ! And his place be- 
fore the eternal throne ! 

Wilbur Fisk at the lN"orth and John Early at the South were 
among the first to initiate and promote a collegiate education in the 
Methodist ministry, and the Wesley an University and Randolph Ma- 
con College are their enduring monuments. Yet it is a question of 
the greatest importance whether we have not lost more in zeal than 
we have gained in education; and declined in "the demonstration of the 
Spirit," as we have improved in " excellency of speech " and " enticing 
words of man's wisdom : " a consequence which Bishop Early by no 
means believed to be inevitable, and yet a danger which he foresaw im- 
pending, and against which, from the beginning, he uttered the most 
solemn admonitions and warnings, while he exerted his utmost to the 
last in behalf of his loved Randolph Macon College. May the colleges 
of to-day blaze with the old Methodist fire, like the burning bush, out 
of which God spoke ! 

Dr. Abel Stevens, in his "History of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church," speaks of the subject of this memoir : John Early began 
" his public labors among Mr. Jefferson's slaves at Poplar Forest, and, 
notwithstanding his adherence to the policy of the Church South re- 
specting the slavery controversy, he has been noted from the begin- 
ning for his interest in the religious welfare of the colored race. Pos- 
sessing an iron constitution, a practical but. ardent mind, a notably 



554 Methodist Bishops. 

resolute will, and habits rigorously systematic and laborious, lie became 
a favorite coadjutor, a confidential counselor of Asburj, M'Kendree, 
Bruce, Jesse Lee, and their associate leaders of the denomination. 
He was a renowned, if not, indeed, a dreaded, disciplinarian. Every 
interest of the Church received his devoted and persistent attention. 
He was a chief founder of Bandolph Macon College, and has con- 
tinued to be its rector down to our day." 

August man of God ! One such as he were enough to immortalize 
an age. The memory of him is a living presence in our councils, our 
Churches, and at our firesides. His influence is a sort of omnipres- 
ence, checking our levity, restraining excess, and rebuking presump- 
tion. His body sleeps in the shadow of his own Blue Hills, but his 
spirit, like a presiding genius, abides with us, inalienable and vener- 
able, pointing to the " old paths," and beckoning us onward. 




K E ¥. W D L [L A r\^ €- ^ F' [E K S o-O pB 



William Capers. 



AMONG the eminent men who tilled the Methodist pulpits of 
the South, and carried forward the Methodistic movement in 
the generation immediately succeeding Asbury and M'Kendree, 
William Capers holds no mean rank. He was born in South Caro- 
lina, in January, 1790. His father, who had been an officer in the 
war of the Revolution, became a Christian and a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church on the first introduction of the ministry 
of that Church into South Carolina. He died late in 1812, and was 
a pattern of piety, illustrating in his life the consistency, simplicity, 
and power of religion, and on his death-bed its surpassing triumph. 
William passed through a childhood of innocence, simple pastimes, 
gladsome sympathies, in the happy world of a country home. As 
he grew^ up he had the training of suitable schools, and in his six- 
teenth year was admitted to the Sophomore class of the South Caro- 
lina College. Under the strain of excessive study, however, his 
health gave w^ay, and he left college at the close of the Junior year. 
He then spent some time in the study of law; but before his ad- 
mission to the bar the providence and Spirit of God opened before 
him a very different career. By the conversion of a dear sister and 
brother-in-law he was powerfully impressed with the truth and im- 
portance of spiritual religion, and led to seek most earnestly its 
manifestation in his own soul. In this state of mind, and in order 
" to break with the world " formally and entirely, he joined the 
Methodist Episcopal Church ; and in a few weeks after, at a Quarterly 
Meeting, he found the unspeakable blessing he had been seeking — " the 
Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." He saw, felt, and 
knew that Christ was his, and that through him he had received the 
Spirit of grace, and was become a child of God. The conviction that 
he was called to preach soon became clear and strong. Following up 
these impressions of imperative duty, he abandoned law, and gave 



558 Methodist Bishops. 

himself to the work of the ministry. x\t a Conference held in 
Greene County, Ga., in December, 1808, and attended by Bishops 
Asbury and M'Kendree, he was admitted on trial in the South 
Carolina Conference. Few young men of his day had fairer worldly 
prospects. In addition to the social position of his family, his fine 
personal appearance and agreeable manners made him popular in all 
circles ; and the force and yariety of his intellect, together with the 
power of sustained mental application, promised ample success in the 
profession originally chosen. It was a yery genuine conyersion which 
led him to " break " with the world which held out to him the 
promise of a brilliant career, enhanced by the glamor thrown oyer 
it by youthful enthusiasm. Without a sigh he turned away from 
all this, and consecrated his life, while yet the sparkle was on its 
dewy morning, to that ministry which he had receiyed of the Lord 
Jesus, '' to testify the gospel of the grace of God." What things 
were gain to him he counted loss for Christ. 

After four years of hard seryice on circuits and stations he was 
married to a charming young woman, gentle, refined, deej^ly pious, 
of noble courage and surpassing beauty. The town at which he was 
stationed this first year of his married life was one of the ,tliree in 
the Conference which possessed a parsonage. The building so called 
had two stories, the lower eight feet high, the up23er just high 
enough to allow a man of ordinary height to stand upright with his 
hat off. So meager were the collections for his support that less 
than two hundred dollars was all that was paid him for the year's 
work ; and, of course, 23riyate resources had to be drawn on. Yet 
I cannot doubt but that the " peace of God which passeth all under- 
standing," and the smile of that beautiful young wife, turned the 
shanty into a palace. The first visitors who pronounced their bene- 
dictions upon the young housekeepers were Francis Asbury and his 
trayeling companion, Henry Boehm. This year's work laid the 
foundation for a society which afterward reckoned among its mem- 
bers some of the best, most intelligent, and influential Methodists 
known anywhere. 

The next circuit of Mr. Capers was among his relatiyes, where 
he required no parsonage, and where, of course, his abilities and 
disinterested zeal were highly appreciated. The year ran its course, 



William Capers. 559 

filled up with duty and usefulness ; but its close brought the greatest 
trial and conflict of his earlier ministerial life. The Church made ho 
adequate provision for family men ; on the contrary, the usage then 
was for married preachers, after serving a year or two and exhaust- 
ing their own means of support in making up deficiencies of salary, 
to retire honorably and quietly from the active service of the regular 
ministry, and sustain thenceforward the relation of located preachers 
— finding support in secular pursuits, exercising the ministerial 
functions only as occasion served. Mr. Capers was in the full vigor 
of early manhood. He had the promise of many years of dis- 
tinguished usefulness before him. He had admiring friends who 
anticipated for him wide and noble influence ; and besides, the vows 
of God were upon him to consecrate time, strength, and faculty to 
the exclusive- work of the ministry. All the force of obligations of 
this sort was felt by him ; yet, on the other hand, there was the 
usage of the Annual Conference of which he was a member ; the 
stern fact that the Church at whose altars he was serving seemed 
oblivious of its part of the obligation. To think of being able to get 
on with a year's salary consisting of eighty dollars for himself and 
eighty dollars for his wife, with traveling expenses, and no more, Avas 
chimerical ; and beyond this the Book of Discipline required no 
provision to be made. After much trouble of mind and anxious 
consideration he felt compelled to locate. His wife, when consulted, 
doubted, hesitated, and objected to his taking . this step, and at last 
yielded with extreme reluctance, saying to her husband : " If you are 
clear in your mind, you must do it ; but I fear you will do it too much 
on my account." And now a small farm that had been given him by 
his father before his marriage was put in working order. Things 
went on well until the close of the year. Then suddenly, at one 
sharp stroke, that lovely wife — the desire of his eyes, the idol of his 
heart — is taken from him. In the morning he had seen her, the 
perfection of beauty, the joy of his life ; at night her spirit had fled ! 
Enough of the farm now. The blow was sudden, but the solemn 
lesson was w^ell improved. As soon as suitable arrangements could 
be made he resumed his great life-work, and thenceforth, to the end 
of life, he gave himself, talent and fortune, energy and activity, in 
full consecration to the sole work of the gospel ministry. 



560 Methodist Bishops. 

He was re-admitted into the South Carolina Annual Conference 
in 1818, having married again — ^this time, also, very happily. This 
lady, whom I long knew and honored highly, possessed eminently 
many of the qualities required in the wife of a Methodist traveling 
preacher. She had a fine face, a sweet voice, an excellent judgment, 
an amiable temper, a noble endurance, and the spirit of unreserved 
self-sacrifice. She loved God with all her heart, and was to her 
husband a wife who did him " good and not evil, all the days of her 
life." She survived him but a few years, and died in Charleston, 
S. C, in 1860, in the arms of a beloved son who had just been re- 
peating for her the beautiful lines beginning, " Over the river they 
beckon to me." 

In 1820 Mr. Capers was elected a delegate to the General Con- 
ference held in Baltimore, and at once took rank in that body as an 
able debater and man of affairs. The year before, he had been sta- 
tioned at Savannah, Ga. He had crowded congregations, preached three 
times on Sunday, and, besides one or two prayer-meetings, preached 
on Wednesday evenings, and visited the classes weekly. When the 
sickly season came on, yellow fever desolated the city. Day and 
night he was in the thick of the pestilence, ministering to the sick 
and dying. This endeared him greatly to the community. Among 
those who died that autumn was a distinguished and noble minister 
of a large Congregationalist Church, Dr. Kollock. Mr. Capers was 
sincerely attached to him, and during his illness preached for him 
once on every Sunday. After the doctor's death the pastorship of 
the Church was respectfully tendered to him. The position was 
highly influential. It involved no sacrifice of doctrinal views. The 
salary offered was among the highest at that time paid to any minister 
in the United States. But this exchange of the hard, ever-shifting, 
poorly-paid service of a Methodist traveling preacher, for aflHuenee, 
a permanent home, and high social respectability, he declined without 
hesitation. 

Mr. Capers was always very popular with the colored people. 
He was ever deeply solicitous for their religious welfare. Some of 
them were highly esteemed by him as men of intelligence and piety, 
who read the Scriptures and understood them, were consistent pro- 
fessors of religion, and zealous for its spread among people of 



William Capers. 561 

their own color. The most remarkable of all whom he had 
known was Henry Evans, of Fayetteville, N. C. Evans was, con- 
fessedly, the father of the Methodist Chnrch, white and black, in 
that town. 

The Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church was 
organized in IN'ew York in 1819, and at the General Conference held 
the next year the Constitution was amended, and branch societies were 
recommended to be formed in all the Annual Conferences. The first 
mission estabhshed was among the Wyandot Indians in Ohio. The 
next was a mission in the South — to the Creek Indians, who then 
occupied lands east and west of the Chattahoochee River, in Georgia 
and Alabama. In 1821, at the session of the South Carolina Confer- 
ence, which then embraced Georgia, Mr. Capers was selected by Bishop 
M'Kendree to set on foot this mission. He gave, during a couple of 
years, his full strength and time to its establishment. Protracted 
absences from his family, long journeys on horseback, and no small 
amount of j)reaching in Georgia and South Carolina, w^ere iuA^olved. 
This was the earliest illustration of that noble devotion to the cause 
of missions wdiich characterized his whole life. He continued super- 
intendent of the mission a couple of years longer, though stationed at 
Milledgeville, Ga. He was a member of the General Conferences of 
1824 and 1828. At the latter of these he was elected as the Eepre- 
sentative of the Methodist Episcopal Church to the British Wesley an 
Conference. Tlie duties of this honorable mission he discharged to 
the great satisfaction of the English Methodists. He had the ease and 
elegance of finished manners, a simple and devout spirit, line conver- 
sational powers, and the charm of genuine eloquence in the pulpit. 
The Conference assured him, in one of their resolutions, that he 
should long retain a high place in their affectionate remembrance. 

He had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Bunting, who was President 
of the Conference, preach; and pronounced him the finest preacher 
he had ever heard. He spent an afternoon and night with Dr. Adam 
Clarke, at Haydon Hall. He describes the doctor's manners as being 
" as easy, playful, and familiar, as can be conceived ; such as in turn 
would equally interest a scholar and a child. In preaching, his utter- 
ance is rapid, and his language always clear, strong, and simple." This 
visit was just four years before Dr. Clarke's death. Dr. JS^ewton is 



562 Methodist Bishops, 

mentioned as " the ApoUos of the Weslejan Methodists as a jDublic 
speaker, and particularly so on the platform. His manners are ver j 
dignified, and yet exceedingly pleasant ; he converses freely, is very 
witty, and full of anecdote, and is a finished gentleman as well as a 
very able man." Of Kichard Watson : " Such a forehead as Mr. 
Watson's I never looked at in my life. He is very thin and pale, with 
a wan face which looks even narrower than it might be on account of 
the unusual size of his forehead. Mr. Watson is rather above six feet 
high, but I suppose he would not weigh much, if any thing, more 
than I do. He is acknowledged on all hands to be the ablest man in 
the Connection." 

Shortly after Mr. Capers's return to the United States the degree 
of D.D. was conferred upon him ; and he was elected Professor of Moral 
Philosophy and Belles-lettres in Franklin College, the State Institution 
of Georgia. A year or two afterward the Presidency of La Grange 
College was offered him. These honorable j)ositions, however, he 
declined to accept. 

Dr. Capers had now been preaching some twenty years. He was in 
the prime of his powers, and had a national reputation. Suppose 
we pause, and inquire as to the leading characteristics of that 
preaching. 

Beginning with i\\Q'physiqiie : he had in great perfection the natural 
elements which go to make up the pulpit orator, and which give vast 
power over popular assemblies. He was a fine-looking man. His face 
was strikingly handsome ; his forehead finely molded ; his eye lus- 
trous, black, and full of power ; his chin delicate, but firm-set ; his 
hands and his feet were small. Every movement was graceful, natural, 
utterly free from affectation. He had the ease of the most refined 
breeding, the composure of entire self-possession. His voice, while it 
had compass enough to be heard distinctly by more than a thousand 
listeners, was yet sweet and musical ; its tones always on the right key ; 
its management always under perfect control. So that it was a matter 
of pleasure to a popular assembly just to look at and listen to him. 

The time and sphere allotted him by the providence of God, in the 
great movements of American Methodism, called for clear, strong, ex- 
temporaneous preaching ; for a vigorous, masculine, intellectual faculty ; 
for keen and quick observation, profound knowledge of men, and the 



William Capers. 563 

power of sustained activity. Amid the constant changes and tlie 
miscellaneous engagements of a traveling preacher forty or iifty years 
ago, severe systematic study was very much out of the question. Dr. 
Capers was far more a man of vigorous, original thinking, than a man 
of books. His reading was select, and embraced only a few of the 
masterpieces of sacred literature, Jeremy Taylor being among his 
favorite authors. He appreciated high scholarship ; but he made no 
pretensions to extensive and various learning, the result of nothing 
less than years of patient study. 

He had trained himself to rapid mental combinations — to the readi- 
ness and alertness which come from concentrated reflection. The rules 
which influenced his practice early in his ministry, he tells us, were to 
keep strictly to the text, never bringing in matter wdiicli did not 
directly spring from it ; to keep the mind constantly directed to the 
subject of preaching, and so to conduct reading and thinking as to be 
on the alert to find preaching matter ; and after preaching a sermon, to 
" put out the tracks " as soon as possible by not recollecting any thing 
of it. "To be an oif-hand preacher" — such was his view of the mat- 
ter — "requires indispensably that one keep his work always in mind, 
and so actively as to press into his service for the pulpit whatever may 
be desirable for it. And if one would have new matter in every dis- 
course, he must look for it in what has come under his observation in 
books, in men, in every thing he has met with since he preached last. 
But, above all things else, it is by studying the Scriptures with an 
active preaching mind, that we may bring forth to effect things new 
and old in all our pulpit efforts," 

His preaching, the result of the habitual application of such rules, 
was strictly extemporaneous, aided by no manuscript or brief, grounded 
on no memoriter preparations. He never used formal divisions or 
subdivisions of his subject. He discussed the great principle or les- 
son of his text with no artificial helps of heads of discourse formally 
announced. This leading principle once attained, formed the main 
point of view of the discourse. The powers of clear discrimination, 
fertile illustration, earnest appeal to the conscience, were brought into 
play to unfold the relations of the main point, and to give effect to 
the truths involved. Occasionally, but not often, you heard the grand 
thunder. It must be some camp-meeting scene, some special call upon 
33 



564 Methodist Bishops. 

the deep emotions — then his eloquence " flew on eagle flight, forth 
and right on." 

Several very remarkable instances of the sort occurred in his 
earlier ministry. Ordinarily, in the place of vehement, irresistible 
impulse, and torrent-like rush of thought and emotion, there was the 
more refined, graceful, and self-restrained delivery. Fancy, indeed, 
distinguished his mind, rather than imagination. His preaching par- 
took, for the most part, not so much of the grand as of the .pleasing 
and instructive. It reminded jouof a beautiful summer sum-ise.with 
the sparkle of its dew-drops, and its breezj freshness, rather than of 
the sea swept bj mighty winds, and "deep calhng unto deep." 
Bishop George F. Pierce — a prince among pulpit orators — sajs of his 
preaching : 

At other times he was transfigured. His very form dilated, his eve beamed 
•with celestial beauty, soft with the light of love, yet radiant with the joy of his 
rapt and ravished spirit, and his voice, mellowed by emotion, spell-bound while 
it inspired the heaving multitude. "When the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, 
when the angel touched his lips with a coal from the altar, O, he was a charm- 
ing preacher ! I have heard him, when the consolations of the Gospel distilled 
from his tongue as honey from the rock, and the message of salvation came down 
like the angelic song upon the shepherds of Bethlehem. Anon, I have seen him 
clothe himself with terrible majesty, as when a prophet proclaimed the venge- 
ance of the Almighty ; and then the thunder of the violated law from his lips 
pealed like the trump of doom, and the pallid, awe-struck assembly told that the 
preacher had power with God. and had prevailed. 

I need hardly add, that Dr. Capers's preaching was always evan^ 
gelical, in the strict and proper sense of that somewhat abused word. 
He had realized in his own soul the divine life. He knew as the 
result of personal consciousness and daily experience, "the new and 
li^^ng way to God by the blood of Jesus." He had the spiritual 
insight that comes of deep spiritual life. He gave utterance, there- 
fore, to what he considered no doubtful speculations, when he declared 
the freeness and fullness of Christ's atoning sacrifice as the ground of 
man's justification, and the power and grace of the Holy Ghost as 
the efficient cause of man's regeneration and sanctification. He held 
the essentially simple and grand Methodistic point of view — justifica- 
tion by faith alone to all who feel their guilt and danger and turn 
from sin with the repentance of a broken and contrite heart ; faith, as 



William Capers. 565 

a personal trust in, and commitment of tlie soul to, Clirist, for present 
salvation ; the promise of God, as sufficiently free and ample to warrant 
an instant application to Christ for salvation ; the witness of pardon 
by tlie Holy Spirit, as the common privilege of believers ; this comfort- 
ing assurance being maintained by the lively exercise of the same faith 
which justifies the soul ; the result of the whole, holiness and useful- 
ness here, and eternal life in the world to come. These doctrinal 
rudiments, which throw^ their blended glory around the cross of Christ, 
constituted, in ample variety, richness, and force of application, the 
Gospel preached by this eminent man. 

Dr. Capers's reverence for revealed truth w^as sincere and profound. 
The speculative faculty in his mental constitution w^as held in strict 
subordination to the " mind of the Spirit," as presented in the word 
of God. In matters of religious faith he subscribed, ex animo, to the 
fine sentiment of Richard Watson : " Where eternal reason has not 
beamed, human reason cannot be enlightened." Accordingly, where 
the heavenly illumination stopped, he stopped. He felt no anxious 
longing to overstep the limits which separate the unknow^n from the 
known. The bounds beyond which all things are dark and impenetra- 
ble, were clearly discerned by him ; and no mental appetite urged him 
on to break through and attempt to gaze. That Christianity was from 
heaven, he had the most irrefragable of proofs — he had tried it and 
found it divine. Satisfied with the authority of Scripture, his mind 
sought, with becoming humility and dependence on God, to find out, 
by comparing Scripture with Scripture, the principal sense, the great 
substance and body of truth, therein revealed. This furnished him 
materials for preaching. 

How necessary he judged the office and work of the Holy Spirit 
to be in all successful preaching his own words will strikingly set forth ; 

The Gospel is the vehicle of the gracious power of the Holy Ghost, and is 
nothing less. To preach the Gospel is to set this vehicle in motion. It is en- 
joined to be preached because the Holy is in it; and for this cause, and no other, 
it ought to be preached to " every creature," at any cost ; life itself being despised 
for it. Yes, the Gospel whicli Christ has commanded to be preached conveys to 
men actual salvation — forgiveness and regeneration and sanctification, by the 
Holy Ghost, whose word it is. " Quick and powerful, and sharper than a two- 
edged sword," how little is it like the poor stuff of preaching, which, alas! has 
come in place of it. 



566 Methodist Bishops. 

These were the views Dr. Capers entertained, both of the Gospel 
itself and of the spirit in which it should be preached. His testi- 
mony to the kind and quality of the primitive Methodist preaching 
of this country is worth considering : 

Methodism was neither poverty nor rags, nor a clown's coat and bhmderino- 
speech, nor an unfurnished, half-provisioned house or no house at all for the 
preacher; but it -vvas the Gospel simply believed and faithfully followed, and 
earnestly, veliemently insisted on. It was powerful, not because it was poor, but 
because it was the living, breathing, active, urgent testimony of the Gospel of 
the Son of God. It apprehended Christ's presence, and took hold on his author- 
ity to perform its work. Its every utterance w^as a "Thus saith the Lord." The 
Bible, the Bible, w^as ever on its lips. Nothing but the Bible, and just as the 
Bible holds it, was its testimony of truth. It was all spiritual, experimental, 
practical; not speculative, abstracted, or metaphysical. When it preached, it 
was to testify of "repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus 
Christ;" and to both, and to every degree of both, for the time present. When 
it exhorted, it was to enforce its preaching, as it ever saw sinners sporting on 
the brink of a precipice and believers in danger of being seduced from their 
duty and safety. And, preaching or exhorting, its inexhaustible argument was, 
eternity; eternity at hand — an eternity of heaven or hell for every soul of man. 
Its great element was spirituality — a spirituality not to be reached by a sublimat- 
ing mental process, but by a hearty entertaining of the truths of the Gospel as 
they challenge the conscience, and appeal to the heart for credence in the name 
of Christ crucified, wdienever and wherever the Gospel is preached. And this, 
together with a moral disciiDline answering to it, I understand to be Methodism 
still, and God forbid there should come any other in its name. 

With profound convictions of this sort, no wonder that his min- 
istry never made the attempt to plunge into the vortexes of tran- 
scendental metaphysics, nor wound its painful way through the laby- 
rinths of ontological science ; that it affected neither casuistic subtle- 
ties nor psychological speculation. 'Nov did that ministry seek to 
awaken the poetic susceptibilities of our nature, and afford mere 
delight to taste and imagination. On the contrary, it insisted with all 
possible urgency on the necessity of that spiritual change which pro- . 
duces a holy life in this dark, polluted world ; which leads us " to wor- 
ship God in the spirit, to rejoice in Christ Jesus, and to have no con- 
fidence in the flesh." A very genuine humility characterized and 
imbued his whole spirit in the pulpit and out of it. The celebrated 
Harriet Martineau, when in South Carolina years ago, expressed to a 



William Capers. 567 

friend of Dr. Capers a strong desire to hear him preach. To the 
inquiry of this friend tlie doctor returned the following note : 

I expect to preach in the luorniiig— a poor stick for such a service. If JMiss 
Martineau pleases, she may come to hear me. She would do better, though, 
Avould she simply come to hear the Lord's commands, not minding the mouth 
through which they may have- utterance. 

Miss Martineau did go, and was deeply impressed as well as 
charmed by the sermon she heard. 

He was, for a year or two, editor of the " Southern Christian Advo- 
cate," exhibiting a manly vigor and well-sustained ability ; but he was 
adapted neither by temperament nor taste to this department of 
Church work. As soon as it became practicable he gave up to other 
hands the management of the paper, and at the General Conference 
of 1840 received the appointment of Missionary Secretary for the 
South. For several years he was actively and incessantly engaged in 
the laborious duties of this office. His name is identified, however, 
most honorably with a particular department of this missionary work, 
commenced a few years before, which embraced the blacks on the rice 
and cotton plantations of the low country of the Carolinas and Geor- 
gia. The colored population of the cities and healthier portions of 
the country had access every-wdiere to Church privileges — to the 
enlightening and elevating influences which go along with a Christian 
civilization. But this was not the case in the localities just mentioned. 
On the large plantations which lined the river deltas you might find ' 
thousands of Africans, descendants of those brought into the country 
in the time of the slave-trade, and who enjoyed a congenial climate 
where scarce a score of white persons could live at all during half the 
year. Religiously considered, their condition was little better than in 
Africa. This state of things was matter of great concern to Dr. 
Capers. The providence of God opened the way into this important 
field of missionary operations ; and the doctor, at that time Presiding 
Elder of the Charleston District, was led to take the preliminary 
measures necessary to the establishment of missions among these 
blacks at the instance of the Hon. Charles C. Pinckney, and other 
gentlemen owning large properties. Two mission stations were set oil 
foot at the next session of the South Carolina Conference, to which 
two of the preachers of the Conference were sent — the whole arrange- 



568 Methodist Bishops. 

ment being under the supervision of Dr. Capers. One of these mis- 
sionaries died at his post in the succeeding autumn, from fever con- 
tracted by exposure in the swamps where his mission lay. In 1833 
there were 4 missions, with 4 missionaries, and a membership of 1,495. 
The missionary collections for this work amounted to 82,247. In 
1843 the missionary stations amounted to 14, served by 12 preachers ; 
the number of members 6,110, and the revenue 810,155. In 1853 
there were 22 missions, 29 missionaries, 11,653 members of the 
Church, and the collections taken for the support of the missions had 
reached 825,049. By the close of the next decade it appeared that 
little less than a half million of dollars had been contributed in all 
for this object in the South Carolina Conference alone. These statis- 
tics will show that no small measure of interest was felt during those 
thirty years in the religious welfare of even the most destitute of the 
African population. In 1845 Dr. Capers said in one of his reports : 

We are more than ever convinced of our bound en duty, and we feel it deeply 
at heart, to preach the Gospel to the slaves throughout the country, and in doing 
so to adapt our ministrations to their peculiar wants, that we labor not in vain. 
And we exhort the missionaries wdio stand foremost in this godly work to take 
courage, to be diligent, using plain language, (but never what is mean and 
broken,) as well in their sermons and exhortations as in their ordinary intercourse 
with their people; teaching them patiently and with great pains the way of life. 
And in view of the greatness and difficulty of this work, we repeat to them the 
expression of our decided judgment, that too much of their time can hardly be 
devoted to catechetical instruction, both to adults and children; and we add 
that this, in connection with preaching and visiting the sick, must make it neces- 
sary for a missionary to be employed not less than four or five days in every week 
continually, if not all his time. 

This will serve to sliow the profound interest felt by Dr. Capers 
in this department of the missionary work, and the judicious measures 
advocated and put in operation by him to promote the religious 
welfare of the colored population of the Southern country. He held 
tlie appointment of Missionary Secretary for the South from 1840 to 
the time of his election to the episcopate. 

This election took place at the first General Conference of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, held at Petersburgh, Ya., in May, 
1846. The venerable Joshua Soule presided at the solemn service 
of the ordination, Bishop Andrew taking part. This honor came, 



William Capers. 569 

as all others before had come, unsought — the spontaneous testimonial 
on the part of his brethren of their esteem for his character and past 
services ; of their conlidence in his ability to discharge faithfully and 
well the duties of this highest position in the Church. The same 
scrupulous delicacy and nice sense of propriety which had character- 
ized him throuo-h life marked his conduct in reference to this elec- 
tion. Writing to his wife on the occasion, after expressing the sur- 
prise to himself which the occurrence had produced, he says : 

I felt that the favor of God and the confidence of the Church was our best estate, 
and best patrimony for our children; and whether or not, I dare not, I would not 
draw back. To-day I feel that we are on the altar together; and O, have I not 
felt that "the altar sanctifieth the gift ? " I have only to cast all my care on 
God, all my multiform unworthiness on his divine goodness and condescension 
in Christ, and go on. I have so reverenced the work and ofiice of a Bishop and 
the Bishops themselves that that itself embarrasses me. I cannot feel myself 
a Bishop; but, thank God ! I feel what is better — an abiding sense of being ac- 
cepted of him, in an humble and sincere devotion of myself without stint, to 
his service. 

For nine years he filled the responsible office, maintaining, with 
blended dignity and kindness, and with undeviating fidelity, the form 
of sound words and godly discipline which had been intrusted to his 
keeping at his ordination — a precious deposit from the fathers of the 
Church. His ofiicial visitations embraced all the Annual Conferences 
in the Connection, first and last. Several of his tours w^ere made, for 
the most part, on horseback. Referring to his second tour of visita- 
tions, which carried him to Arkansas and Texas, he makes pleasant 
mention of his horse : 

I rode him a thousand miles, over mountains not a few, without his once 
stumbling with me, though he could not have been much used before I £:ot him, 
being under five years old ; and he was equal to the best of horses I traveled 
with, and, except one, decidedly superior as a traveler, both for the easiness of 
his action and his progress on the road. A pleasant horse was Mac, and very 
lucky was I in procuring him. White, nearly every hair of him, just fifteen 
hands high, thin-shouldered, deep-chested, light-footed. Bought and sold for 
sixty dollars. 

If in these days of railroads Methodist preachers had the use for 
horses which their fathers had, it might be worth w^hile to emphasize 
the points of a good riding-horse laid down by the Bishop. 



570 Methodist Bishops. 

Just before his sixtieth birthday, he completed his fourth round 
of episcopal visitations. He refers to the superintending providence 
of God during this tour in the following words : 

After the manner of the most kind Providence, which has attended me all 
along the way of my journeying from the beginning till now, I have threaded 
the dangerous navigation of the Red River, up and down, from New Orleans to 
Shreveport and back again, without port or haven. Every boat, I was told 
that had ascended Red River this season, not excepting the one after me lost 
some passengers by cholera ; but my boat, and one of the worst and dirtiest I 
was ever on, though crowded to excess, so that the clerk told me we had, little 
and big, black and white, five hundred passengers on board, had not one case. 
One old man died on board of asthma. I have no asthma. What is to come 
may well be confided to the " will Divine ; " but in all my traveling for more 
than forty years, by stage-coach, by railroad, by ship, and by steamboat, no 
accident has ever happened to hurt me, or any one else traveling with me, to 
this day. Verily, there is a Providence which watches over men. 

The last year or two of the good Bishop's second quadrennial term 
were marked by occasional ill health and the advancing feebleness 
brought on by exacting labors at his time of life. Nevertheless, he 
faltered not in his course. He had finished his tour of annual visita- 
tions, and had returned home in comfortable health and excellent 
spirits, and with the prospect before him of several years of service 
to the Church, when he was suddenly attacked on the midnight of 
January 25, 1855 — the day on which he completed his sixty-fifth year 
— with angina jpectoris^ and after an illness of three days, at sunrise 
on the 29th, he finished his course and entered into his rest — " the 
joy of his Lord." When the attack of illness first came, his two 
daughters were awakened by their mother calling to them in great 
alarm. They hastened to the Bishop's room and found him sitting 
up, but suffering great agony. He said, "My precious children, give 
me up to God. O that more pf you were here ! But I bless God that 
I have so lately seen you all." Then turning to his daughter Mary, 
he said : " I want you to finish my minutes to-morrow, and send them 
off." The preparation of those minutes of his last Conference was 
the last ofiicial act of his life ; and it is touching to observe how his 
habits of promptness, punctuality, and order were manifested at a 
crisis so solemn. A physician was soon with him, and succeeded in pro- 
ducing temporary relief. After being removed to his bed, he asked 



William Capers. 571 

the hour, and on being told, said : " Wliat, only three honrs since I 
have been suffering such torture ? Only three hours ! What, then, 
must be the voice of the bird that cries ' Eternity, eternity,' " (refer- 
ring, no doubt, to a strange occurrence mentioned in the writings of 
Melanchthon.) " Three hours have taken away all hut my religion ! " 
Yes, all but his religion. Darkness lay upon the valley and foot-hills 
now ; but the Alpine summits were all aglow with celestial radiance ! 

During the next day he suffered much, but was constantly en- 
gaged in prayer, especially for his family. On Sunday he was 
better. At daylight the next morning Dr. Jones, his son-in-law, who 
had come from his circuit the night before, approached his bedside 
and inquired how he was. He answered, " I feel decidedly better, 
and would like to get up that your mother may be able to sleep." 
Dr. Jones said : " The doctor wishes you to take a small dose of 
castor oil." 

"Well," said he, "give it to me in a table-spoon, for I have no 
taste." 

Being assisted to raise himself, he took the spoon, drank the oil, 
then took a tumbler of water and rinsed his mouth over a basin. 
Mrs. Capers turned from the bed to put aside the tumbler and basin, 
and in a moment he breathed his last. His countenance expressed 
the utmost composure ; no single sigh or convulsive movement 
marked the approach of death. Gently as dies the latest whisper 
of summer winds, his life passed aw^ay. His fond and faithful wife 
could not believe that this was death. She thought it must be only 
a fainting fit, and that she should again see the light of those dear 
eyes, and once more hear the voice of her beloved husband. All the 
restoratives within reach were applied for some time in the hopeless 
endeavor to recover him to consciousness. But the pleadings of 
affection fell on " the cold, dull ear of death." The immortal spirit 
had joined the innumerable company before the throne ! 

Thus ended the long and brilliant career of this great man. The 
whole course of his ministry tended to the edification of the Church. 
He was meant by the divine Head of the Church to be a standard- 
bearer in the host, and so he was. His large views, his catholic 
spirit, his eminent abilities, his powders of action and endurance, his 
readiness to submit, for the Gospel's sake, to privation, hardship, self- 



572 Methodist Bishops. 

sacrifice ; his lojalt j to Christ ; his disinterGsted attachment to the 
itinerant ministry, proof against all assanlts from without, all fears 
from within ; a character spotless, w^ell poised, mighty in influence, 
exhibiting from first to last the highest forms of virtue, holiness, and 
usefulness — all this placed William Capers, in the midst of his own 
generation, as a shining pillar hung around w^ith trophies of victory, 
and will make his name illustrious in the coming generations. 




. B. mJkM © ® M c, ID Ml^S^M 



OI^TU OF TSE BISKOPS OF THE liETHOFIST FFIS COPAL CEJjFFK S OUIR . 



Henry Bidleman Bascom. 



BY KEY. W. H. MILBURN, D.D. 



HET^RY BIDLEMAInT BASCOM, who for nearly forty years did 
the work of a Methodist preacher on circuits, in stations and 
agencies, in colleges, and for a few montlis filled the office of Bishop, 
w^as born on the 27th of May, 1796, and died on the 8tli of Septem- 
ber, 1850, aged a little over fifty-four years. Few men in this country 
have filled a larger space in the admiration and love of their contem- 
poraries, but - aftertimes will be obliged to accejDt tradition as the 
guarantee of his greatness, for he has left nothing in print to justify 
his fame. One reads with pain, not to say shame, the feeble and dis- 
torted praise of newspapers which his biographer has sprinkled through 
his memoirs, and would gladly accept in lieu of the glamour which 
genius cast upon a gaping crowd, tlie calm judgment of an apprecia- 
tive hearer. Toward the close of his life I knew and loved him well, 
and in telling the story of his career, and stating an estimate of his 
powers and character, must be allowed to do so as one who feels that 
his was one of the sweetest and noblest souls that ever looked through 
human eyes. 

Bascom was born amid the picturesque scenery of Delaware County, 
IS". Y., when that region was almost a wilderness. By his father's 
side the blood of the Huguenots was in his veins, which accounted 
for his vivacity and brilliancy of speech and action, and for much of 
the trouble and misconception which he encountered through life. The 
Bascoms left France while the religious wars were raging, and found 
an asylum in the north of England, whence his ancestor emigrated in 
1650, during the troubles with the Protectorate, and settled in l^orth- 
ampton, Massachusetts. Thence Henry's father, Alpheus, removed 
beyond the Catskills to settle on the beautiful banks of the East Fork 
of the Delaware, and here he found Hannah Houk, the first of his 
three wives. She was of German descent, and is spoken of as comely 
in person, sweet in temper, of rare grace and excellence as wife and 



576 Methodist Bishops. 

mother. She bore eight children to Alpheus Bascom, of whom 
Ilenrj was the second ; and the fond hold which she took of his heart 
was only loosened more than live and thirty years after her own 
decease, when the hand of death stilled his pulse. 

Mountains were the friends of his boyhood, and the clear flowing 
stream taught him many a lesson, deep and long. Hunters and rafts- 
men were the only guests at his father's fireside, and poverty was 
among his earliest acquaintances. But fine blood went out and in 
the portals of his heart ; his form, cast in Nature's finest mold, grew 
sinewy and strong ; his senses, vivid and alert in the discipline of bor- 
der life; while his quick eye grew sensitive to Nature's forms of 
beauty and majesty around him, clad in the year's ever-shifting hues ; 
and the mind, with her best nurse. Contemplation, in those solitudes 
found scope " to plume her feathers and let grow her wings." Toil, 
seK-reliance, and self-denial were the rigorous lessons of his early years, 
but sweetened and made easy by his mother's love and his reverent obedi- 
ence to his father's w^ord. A dame's school and a few months with 
a cruel master were his only opportunity for a lettered tuition until 
his eighth year, and then four years at school in Greenwich, New 
Jersey, across the river from Easton-on-the-Delaware, completed his 
academic training. When twelve years of age he removed with his 
father's family to Little Yalley, on the banks of the Alleghany, in 
South-western New York, and thenceforth Bascom knew the school- 
room no more until he entered the halls of Madison and Augusta 
Colleges as a professor. The region of late so famous for the pro- 
duction of petroleum, where so many men have " struck oil," which 
has been the means of self-indulgence, luxury, and ruin, was where 
Henry found the oil that filled the lamps of the wise virgins, by 
whose light they entered the marriage supper with the bridegroom. 
In this wild district, peopled by a few whites and a large body of 
Seneca Indians, where the love of Christ w^as preached only by a few^ 
Methodist circuit-riders and exhorters, the poor, illiterate and friend- 
less boy obtained the pearl of great price, and was able to testify from 
the depth of a regenerate heart and life that God had, for Christ's 
sake, pardoned his sins. This sweetest, strongest sense the humaii 
soul can know decided his career and shaped his future. Boy as he 
was, the passion seized him to proclaim the unsearchable riches of 



Henry Bidleman Bascom. 577 

Clirist, that he might lead men to repentance. For this purpose he 
performed long journeys on foot through the wilderness, and soon, 
by his zeal and fluency, attracted the notice and then gained the re- 
gard of Mr. Gilmore, somewhat older tlian Henry, by trade a pump- 
maker, but at the same time a licensed Methodist exhorter. His 
friendship took a definite shape in an offer to teach Henry his craft, 
to take him as a partner, and also to become his tutor in theology. 
Together they crossed the mountains on foot — a weary way — and 
spent the summer on the west branch of the Susquehanna, gaining 
two or three dollars a day by pump-making, and also trying to draw 
water from the well of life. They gave all the time they could spare 
from the labor of their hands to prayer and study, to prepare them 
for their abundant public labors in school-houses and in private houses, 
which were thronged with large gatherings of people drawn by the 
fame of the boy preacher. ]N"ot often has it happened that precocity 
has developed into real greatness, for boy preachers generally die 
before their time, or give their friends reason to wish they had. 

Alpheus Bascom seems to have been an unprosperous man — about 
this time like a rolling stone — for in the following year we find him 
removing with his family to the neighborhood of Maysville, Kentucky ; 
and a few months later across the river into Ohio, five miles on the 
road to Bipley. Through these changes of scene, the temptations of 
fiat-boat life, the stern exactions of poverty and farm labor, Henry's 
purpose held firm, nor did it falter through all the after years of dis- 
couragement and trial. It seemed as if a fire was in his bones, and 
he could not rest until it kindled the hearts of others. 

The old Western Conference, which included within its bounds 
the whole valley of the Mississippi, had been divided at the G-eneral 
Conference of 1812 into the Tennessee and Ohio Conferences, and in 
September of that year the latter was to hold its session in Chillicothe. 
I can remember the interest, made up of admiration, love, and rever- 
ence, which used to glow in my boyisli breast in the gathering cf the 
way-worn veterans of the saddle-bags on the frontier, and can, there- 
fore, understand Bascom's feelings when, in September, 1812, he went 
to Maysville to meet the preachers on their way to Conference. 
Saturday night came, but none of the brethren had arrived, and young 
Bascom was "put up" to exhort. His discourse astonished the con- 



578 Methodist Bishops. 

gregation, and made no little talk in the village. The next morning 
the brethren came pouring in, and William M'Mahon, one of the 
young men of promise, preached. While thus engaged he noticed a 
remarkably handsome youth, whose flashing eye and mantling cheek 
told how deep was his interest in the sermon. After the service he 
asked who the lad was, and heard for the first time the name of 
Bascom, and, moreover, of his startling exhortation the night before. 
He sought him at once, and in time the souls of these men were 
knitted together as were those of David and Jonathan. 

Henry had long desired to attend the Conference, but had no 
outfit, and his father was too poor to furnish one. A neighbor having 
offered him Avork, he had spent the preceding summer in the woods 
with his ax, felling trees and sjDlitting rails at the rate of twenty-five 
cents a hundred. His horse, saddle, bridle, saddle-bags, and wardrobe 
being thus provided, he w^as now ready for a ride to Chillicothe to 
see and hear the venerable Asbury, the great M'Kendree, and the 
company of backwoods preachers, more illustrious to his imagination 
than the paladins of the Roand Table or the knights of chivalry. 
Bascom gladly accepted M'Mahon's invitation to become his traveling 
companion to the Conference. Arrived at Chillicothe, the preacher 
in charge curtly informed them that provision was made only for 
members of the Conferences, and as Bascom was nothing but an ex- 
horter he was turning away with a flushed cheek and wounded heart 
for a lonely ride home, when M'Mahon happily bethought him to in- 
quire of the hmisgiie parson who was to share his bed ; and, informed 
that he had it alone, asked Bascom to share it with him ; and thus 
the boy attended his first Conference. That year he traveled Brush 
Creek Circuit, in which his father lived, and the next, 1813, was re- 
ceived as a preacher on trial, and appointed to Deer Creek Circuit. 
It is not my purpose to follow him through the list of his appoint- 
ments, nor to narrate all his trials and dangers from hardshi23s, ex- 
posure from wild beasts and wilder men, and, hardest to bear of all, 
from the prejudice and ill-will of his brethren. Many were his perils 
and hair-breadth escapes by flood and field. He was chased by In- 
dians, and to save himself was obliged to force his horse through a 
river filled with fioating ice, and he emerged unscathed, but in a frozen 
coat of mail. He was chased by wolves and barely escaped with life ; 



Henry Bidleman Bascom. 579 

had a figlit with a bear, in which Bruin had w^ell-nigh been victorious, 
and the voice of the future great preacher silenced. On the wintry 
mountain's side his bed has been a hollow tree, while night was made 
hideous with the howling of wolves. Once he barely escaped death 
from a panther ; and again his guard at night, through a mountain 
fastness beset with wild beasts, was two stout, ruddy-cheeked damsels, 
armed with clubs and attended by a pack of dogs. His way lay 
through pathless forests, through tangled thickets of undergrowth, 
over trackless mountains and treacherous quagmires, through fever- 
breeding swamps and bottoms, "where pestilence walked in darkness 
and destruction wasted at noon-day." 

His studies were pursued on horseback in the forest glade beset 
by wild-cats and rattlesnakes, or in the settler's cabin, w^here snapping 
hounds, crying children, a scolding woman, and a growling squatter, 
taxed his powers of concentration by day, and the snoring at night was 
the musical undertone as he lay prone on the hearth, trying to follow 
the page by the dubious light of a quivering pine-knot. It was his 
misfortune, at least so many of his brethren esteemed it, to be uncom- 
monly handsome, and they seemed disposed to visit it upon him as a 
fault. It may be doubted whether a person of nobler and more impos- 
ing aspect has been clad in the habiliments of modern society ; and had 
he lived among the old beauty-loving Greeks, his faultless form would 
have lent grace to many an antique statue, whose torso might have 
told the later world how divine was Phidias's dream of manly beauty. 
But an Apollo in homespun was not the man for a Methodist preacher, 
whispered the old brethren. Dear old heroes ! Lofty in courage, 
valiant in self-sacrifice, glorious in achievement and endurance, w^orthy 
to be had in everlasting remembrance ! but it must be confessed they 
were a little narrow. Lithe and sinewy as an Indian, buoyant of step, 
his frame instinct with grace and dignity ; his kingly head carried in 
kingly wise ; his large dark eye the organ of expression to every mood, 
from the dreamy calm of meditation to the lightning flash of inspira- 
tion ; his features as perfect as if chiseled by the hand of a master ; his 
high broad forehead wreathed with a crown of glossy black hair ; e^-ery 
attitude and gesture spontaneous, yet commanding ; he arrested every 
eye, and as he passed, you instinctively turned to gaze upon him until 
the crowd hid him from your sight. I have been told by persons 



580 Methodist Bishops. 

who lived in Lexington, Kentucky, liis home for many years, where 
he was as well known as was Henry Clay, that in his daily walks every 
man, woman, and child, white and black, to whom he was familiar as 
a household word, would stop and turn to look at him again as they 
had done a thousand times before. Custom could not stale nor famil- 
iarity blunt their admiration ; moreover, he had a way of looking well 
in his clothes — whatever he had on. In the commonest garb he 
appeared like a sculptor's model, or as if ready to enter a ro^^al draw- 
ing-room. Many of the old brethren, therefore, to whom clownishness 
was near akin to godliness, could not but take offense at his mien and 
pore, and ex23ressed the fear that he was of such stuff as dandies are 
made of, and not j)arsons, at least not pioneer parsons. They looked 
askance at him^ and although his first circuit was hard and rough 
enough, they determined to put him to the proof, and in his second 
year sent him to what was known in the Conference as Botany Bay — 
Guyandotte Circuit, "Western Yirginia. The people were, for the 
most part, poor hunters, who gained a precarious livelihood by the 
trap and rifle. The houses were cabins of a single room ; the fare, 
venison, bear meat, and corn-dodgers ; the costumes of his 23eople 
were made of dressed deerskin for the men, and linsey-woolsey for 
the women ; the roads, if any, were bridle paths or blazed tracks over 
the mountains ; while his way often took him by the brink of yawning 
chasms, whose precipices would have made a less firm brain dizzy; 
or over swollen torrents that periled life and limb to cross. This cir- 
cuit, the old brethren thought, would break his pride, and drive him 
from the itinerant ranks. Little did they know the man, for he went 
to his work from a sick-bed, traveled three thousand miles on foot 
and horseback, preached four hundred times in three hundred days, 
and received twelve dollars and ten cents for his year's labor. When, 
at the end of two years' trial, he came up for admission into full con- 
nection, and for deacon's orders, he was rudely refused by the vote of 
the Conference, but as an act of grace was ''continued on trial" 
another year. At the end of the third year he was again refused, and 
yet there was no charge or even complaint against his moral or minis- 
terial character and labors, but the brethren thought he did not look 
like a Methodist preacher. Stung to the quick by the injustice and 
unkindness of his brethren, whose rebukes and buffets he had meekly 



Hein^ry Bidleman Bascom. 581 

borne, and in all luiniilitj striven to conform himself to the require- 
ments of their wise and godly judgment, he turned with a bursting 
heart to quit the ranks in which he burned to serve, but for which he 
w^as thought uniit because it had pleased God to make liim a supremely 
handsome man, and was preparing to return disgraced to his home, 
when the wise Bishop M'Kendree said to the Conference : " Brethren, 
if you have no use for that boy, I Jiave," and transferred him. 

In the Tennessee Conference he had to run another gauntlet of 
narrow-mindedness on account of his superb appearance. I have else- 
w^iere told a story which will bear repetition here, as it illustrates the 
feeling against him. An old layman, who was Bascom's well-wisher, 
but shared in the orthodox disapprobation, undertook to remonstrate 
with him upon the foppery of his appearance. Henry assured him 
that he couldn't help the way that he was made, and that as he was 
too poor to buy clothes, he had to wear whatever was given to him. 
The brother said triumphantly, " Will you wear a suit if I have it 
made for you ? " " Gladly," said Henry. The old man chuckled at 
the thought of the metamorphosis he was about to effect by changing 
a dandy into the similitude of a preacher. When Bascom came 
round the circuit again the old gentleman had the clothes ready, and, 
taking him out into the grove for a dressing-room, bade him don the 
new attire. When he was arrayed the old gentleman exultantly 
approached, but soon his expression of pleasure gave way to that of 
pain, as surprise, mortification, and anger, chased each other over his 
features. He drew near, and retired ; drew near again, turned Bas- 
com round and round, surveyed him from every point in every hght. 
There it was, the Quaker garb affected by the old preachers as a sign 
of orthodoxy : the straight, cut-close vest and shad-belly coat : but all 
would not do, and the old man, irritated, roared out, "Bascom, take 
off them clothes ; they make you more of a dandy than ever." But 
the preacher wore them until they were threadbare. Under this 
matchless exterior Bascom had an exquisite nervous organization, the 
source at once of his strength and weakness. By reason of its sur- 
charge of electrical power, he at times produced marvelous, almost 
incredible effects upon his congregations ; but the predominance and 
delicacy of his nerve filaments made him the life-long victim of em- 
barrassed shyness and tremulous diffidence. 
34 



582 Methodist Bishops. 

It -^^as not an uncommon tiling lor liim before preaching on some 
important occasion, to pace the floor for three days and nights, sleep- 
less, and almost without food. In mixed society he was never at ease, 
and his reserve looked to strangers like indifference or haughtiness. 
His was the temperament of poets, and, belonging to the genu,^ irrita- 
hile, he never gained the easy self-command and quiet complacency 
which much and varied contact with the world imparts to less finely- 
strung natures. He looked as regal as the palm-tree, but was as 
im23ressionable as the 'inimosa. This physical sensibility was inscruta- 
ble to men of tougher fiber, and they judged it as such persons are 
apt to dispose of the enigmas of idiosyncrasy — if not harshly, at least 
without sympathy. They could not understand how one who, in the 
presence of breathless thousands, seemed to wield their judgments and 
feehngs at his j^leasure, should be as silent and timid as a blush- 
ing maiden in the company of ordinary men. The small change of 
society-chat, gossip, lively satire, and scandal, was never on his lips. 
He admitted, few to his intimacy, especially after the rough discipline 
of his early years ; and it is not strange that men of small imagination 
and narrow symjjathies called him proud, haughty, arrogant, and I 
know not what besides. 

These, then, were the causes which doomed him to years of mis- 
conception and misinterpretation at the hands of his brethren, and 
throughout life made him a riddle to the mass of his acquaintances. 
Yet never did there beat a truer, kindlier, tenderer heart than Bas- 
com's. Nothing could exceed the beauty of his filial piety and devotion, 
the gracious, self-denying, exhaustless affection he bestowed upon his 
friends, the generosity h^ extended to his enemies, his life-long self- 
sacrifice for the honor of the Church and the good of the world. 

Notwithstanding the uncharitable treatment he received, he went 
to his hard circuits without a murmur, and did his work bravely and 
with fidelity. He made rapid strides toward mental and spiritual 
power, and grew in favor with God if not always with man. Greedy 
of knowledge, he sought it as men search for hid treasure ; he redeemed 
the time to devour books, and stored his wealth of facts, ideas, and 
suggestions in a capacious and retentive memory ; or, to speak more 
accurately, assimilated his intellectual food, and, using the strength 
daily acquired in the ceaseless labors of his ministry, gained rapidly 



Heis^ry Bidleman Bascom. 583 

in mental and moral breadth and lieighth. Of course, nothing conld 
atone for tlie want of a thorough early education, and from this he 
suffered all his days. With few books at hand and fewer of the best, 
with no one to direct his reading, school his taste, and give him the 
advantage of a genial, appreciative, yet rigid criticism, it is not to be 
wondered at that the gifted and brilliant boy fell into faults of style 
and manner from which he never recovered. Had it been liis lot to 
possess in youth and early manhood the fortune of a thorough academic 
training until his imagination and sensibilities had become imbued 
with the spirit, and his memory furnished with the forms, of tlie best 
ancient and modern literature, it cannot be doubted that his masculine 
and brilliant genius would have given to after times many a page so 
written that the world would not willingly let die. He did the best 
his circumstance allowed ; and noble was the work and nobler still the 
spirit of the man. The misuse which has been made of the phrase 
"pulpit oratory" has brought it into disrepute. Its free bestowal 
upon the productions of every stripling wdio desecrates the desk to 
scrape the sky for a rubbish of stars, clouds, and sunsets, and ransacks 
earth for wreaths from amaranthine bowers, gems of priceless hue, 
and whispering zephyrs, or gathers an idle multitude to gape at flimsy 
rhetoric or sensational antics, has made " pulpit oratory " a stench. 
But Bascom's was not of that kind. He was an orator born, not made. 
It cannot be denied that he was betrayed, at times, into exaggeration, 
indeed, into extravagance ; but it w^as the redundance of tropical 
wealth unpruned by the hand of art ; and his wildest flights and ex- 
uberant style were redeemed by his simple and lofty aim — not to 
gain applause — but to turn men from darkness to light, from the 
power of Satan to the living God. To this high end all the great 
powers of his body and soul were bent. His wonderful preaching 
soon gathered crowds, and his reputation increased apace. Men and 
women would make long journeys to hear him. By the time he had 
been a preacher ten years his fame had extended through the West- 
ern and South-western States, and when it was announced he would 
preach, no edifice could hold half the multitude. I remember going 
when a boy to a church where he was to officiate at eleven o'clock, 
and found the street thronged at eiglit. 

In 1823, at the instance of Henry Clay, he was chosen Cliaplain to 



584 Methodist Bishops. 

Congress. His first sermon in tlie capital was a failure, and his 
chagrin at tlie mortification of his friends and the loudly expressed 
disappointment of the public, had such a morbid effect upon him that 
he never regained his equipoise in the federal city, or preached there 
with pleasure to himself or satisfaction to his hearers. At the close 
of the session he was anxious to hasten across the mountains to hide 
his diminished head among his friends in the West, bent upon never 
revisiting the sea-board. But the sickness of a friend detained him ; 
and ere long he was persuaded to visit a canip-meeting in the neigh- 
borhood of Annapolis, where he regained his power and preached in 
such a way as to astonish, nay, transport, all who heard him. Thence 
he went to Baltimore, to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, to Philadel- 
phia, where hke effects were produced. It was agreed on all hands 
that rumor had been outrun by reality, and that not half the story of 
Bascom's greatness had been told. From this period to 1839 he was 
in liis prime, and it may well be questioned whether any preacher on 
the American Continent has ever wielded such extraordinary power 
and produced such immediate, remarkable, and startling effects as 
Bascom did in those years, both in the East and the "West. 

It would be difficult — impossible — to convey to a person who never 
heard him, an adequate idea of his appearance, manner, voice, and in- 
fluence in preaching. There was the breathless multitude, packed al- 
most to suffocation, while eager crowds thronged every avenue to the 
church, filled the windows and doors, and stood far beyond the sound 
of the preacher's voice as if to catch the echo. Thus had they waited 
for hours. As the time draws near the preacher is helj^ed through a 
window at the back of the pulpit, and after his brief private devotions 
the service begins. As he rises, pale and quivering, to announce the 
hymn, the leaves rustle, and in his agitation the book almost drops 
from his hand. The reading is hurried, the prayer brief but earnest, 
sometimes almost an agony. Again he rises, to give the text, and 
pauses for a minute which seems an age. You almost pity him as he 
stands there white as marble, his eye dreamy or fixed on A^acancy ; he 
is asking God for help and summoning his self-possession. At length 
the painful hush is broken and the verse is read. He attempts to be 
deliberate, but cannot, and starts at speed. You brace yourself in the 
calm attitude of critical attention, and resolve that, let others do as 



Henry Bidleman Bascom. 585 

they may, you will keep cool, and by patient analysis find the secret 
of his spell. You are interested at once, but ever and again offended 
by a high-sounding word, a turgid phrase, an occasional bit of gran- 
diloquence. But after a brief introduction you find that the grip of 
the subject is masculine ; here is no boy's play of sophonioric fire-works, 
but a Christian preacher, who reasons of sin, of righteousness, and of 
judgment to come — an embassador for God, beseeching you in Christ's 
stead to be reconciled to God. Argument, imagery, appeal, warning, 
denunciation, entreaty, come thick and fast — thicker and faster. The 
voice clear, full, strong, yet musical, capable of every modulation, 
from the shriek to the whisper, running through the octaves of feel- 
ing with sympathetic tone ; the enunciation so perfect, so wonderful, 
that he distinctly utters three hundred and fifty words a minute 
throughout a sermon; the attitude and gestures dramatic, yet uncon- 
scious ; the face like an ever-shifting transparency with a burning 
naphtha lamp behind it, and the eye iridescent with every phase of 
feeling ; now steeped in tears, now pleading with unutterable tender- 
ness, now blazing grandly at the thought of God's pity to sinners, or 
in scorn at the weak devices behind which sin would screen itself. 
There is something more than the torrent-like rush of words, the 
lambent play of the eagle eye, the pose, the movement which Garrick 
would have studied with delight, the sweep of argument, the crowd 
of images, the fiery earnestness, the depth of passion that holds that 
vast assembly spell-bound as the Ancient Mariner held the wedding 
guest. At every pause there is a convulsive gasp as the multitude 
strives to breathe, and that is the only sound save the preacher's voice 
in the great edifice. At times you almost hear your own heart beat, 
so violent are its throbs ; and again its pulse seems to stop. You 
loose your eye from the thrall of the preacher's glance, which appears 
armed with double sight to read your thoughts. You turn your head, 
and lo ! the mass of the people are on their feet, standing statue-like, 
staring in a dazed way at the enchanter who has robbed them of the 
sense of time, place, and posture, and who holds them in a trance of 
fear, terror, love, or rapture. Again the light of his eye arrests you, and 
you cannot slip his despotic hold. Criticism is disarmed, perception, i-e- 
flection, imagination, emotion, are all mastered ; you see, hear, feel, 



think, only as he alloAVS. Your heart and brain are flooded by his 



586 Methodist Bishops. 

personality, and this is only to make way for liis august theme. His 
impetuosity increases, his mastery of your every faculty is complete. 
If you have hidden under refuges of lies, he tears them down and 
leaves you exposed to the hailstones of wrath ; if you are a trembling 
penitent, he encourages and comforts, and you behold the Lamb of 
God which taketh away the sin of the world ; if you are a hopeful 
believer, you see the great white throne with a rainbow round about 
it, in sight hke unto an emerald, and in the midst of the throne a 
Lamb as it had been slain, and almost hear the song of the four beasts, 
and four and twenty elders, and of the multitude that no man can 
number. Halleluia ! halleluia ! 

He ceases, and you find yourself, when restored to consciousness, 
upon your feet where you have been for half an hour, and as your 
benumbed frame drops into the seat you shudder with a strange min- 
gling of pain and delight, and find yourself almost exhausted from the 
mighty strain. I know that this will appear an exaggeration, the 
vapor of an idle brain, to those who never heard Bascom in his prime ; 
but to those who have been thrilled to ecstasy by his resistless elo- 
quence, it will fall short of the memory — how far below the experi- 
ence ! 

Let me here quote the description of a sermon delivered by him 
in old Light-street Church, Baltimore, at the General Conference, in 
May, 1840, written by the beloved Bishop Wightman : 

The throng was as dense as could crowd into tlie spacious building, the ad- 
joining street being filled with people who could not find entrance into the 
church. His text was, " Beliold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of 
the world ! " The sermon embraced all the cardinal elements of tlie Christian 
system, set forth in a light so vivid, under illustrations so overpoweringly mag- 
nificent, and with a vehemence so rushing and pauseless, as to hold the vast 
audience spell-bound. At particular passages, several of which we distinctly 
remember, the eflfect was awful. The sentences came like sharp zig-zag light- 
ning, the tones of the preacher's voice were like articulate thunder. The hearer 
cowered under the weight of thought piled upon thought, and was driven 
almost beside himself by the rapid whirl of dazzling imagery. The sermon, 
artistically considered, had the strange fault of being too great. It covered too 
vast a field of thought ; it was marred by an excess of grandeur. You were 
bewildered by the quick succession of vivid pictures thrown off as by the turn 
of some grand kaleidoscope. The impassioned fervor of the preacher seemed 



Henry Bidleman Bascom. 587 

too self-consuming. We felt, as some one has happily remarked respecting 
Chahners, tliat powers and resources such as these were indeed not needed by 
the Gospel, but much needed by gospel-rejecting man. 

This incident may be added, whicli I had from Bascom's own lips. 
He was preaching in a large country church on a bright Sabbath 
morning. The house w^as crowded to its utmost capacity ; the windows 
were all open, one of which was immediately behind the pulpit, over- 
looking the rural graveyard. The preacher was describing the various 
typical forms and manifestations of the Holy Spirit. Spell-bound and 
breathless, the congregation hung upon his lips. It was the baptism 
in Jordan ; with John they saw the opening heaven, and the Spirit of 
God in the form of a dove descending upon the Son of Man, when 
silently, suddenly, as an apparition, a milk-white dove flew through 
the pulpit window and rested on the preacher's shoulder. Astounded, 
he paused ; an instant it sat, then rose, and three times describing a 
circle around his head, away flew the snowy bird to the summer woods. 
The effect of this startling coincidence must be left to the imagination. 

It would hardly be credited if I were to attempt a record of the 
manifest results of his preaching — how strong men fell from their 
seats in swoons, how some were even carried from the church in de- 
lirium, or how thousands on a camp-ground were lifted to their feet 
and swayed as trees are swayed by the wind, or carried by an invisible 
yet irresistible current in a mass toward the pulpit. Let it not be 
supposed that these were chance successes ; for at his home, where he 
preached most frequently, his ministry was most highly prized. Who 
can doubt that while his physical beauty, genius, and the reservoir of 
magnetic power in his nervous system had much to do with these 
phenomena, the rapt earnestness, the prophet-like self-abandonment, 
and, above all, the power of the Holy Ghost, were necessary to com- 
plete the results ? In this way he would sometimes preach day after 
day for weeks; but it w^as at a fearful discount of the threescore 
yeai's and ten, or even fourscore years, of man's allotted time ; for no 
electric battery in mortal could long endure such vast expenditure. A 
premature failure of his vocal organs and magnetic power, and death 
long before his time, were the consequences. 

More attractive to me, however, than his dazzling eloquence is the 
story of his domestic virtues and his homely affections. I have said 



588 Methodist Bishops. 

that Alplieus Bascom was not a prosperous man — save that it pleased 
God to grant him three wives and twelve children, if that be 23rosperity. 
Henrj^'s mother died in 1815, his father in 1833, and during this 
interval of eighteen years Alpheus had two wives and four children. 
At the beginning of his ministry Henry went in debt to help his 
father, and until the grave received him he carried that crushing 
burden. The naiTow stipend of a Methodist preacher did not afford 
much margin for beneficence, but all he could make and save was 
given to his family. Not only so, but while followed by delighted 
thousands, his praise filling all the Churches, he would hasten to the 
banks of the Ohio, and with his own hands cut and haul the family's 
fire-wood for the winter, help in harvesting, mend the fences, patch 
the house, and do all that in his power lay to promote the comfort 
of the household. "While he was a very young man, traveling a rough 
circuit in Kentucky, one of his sisters died, leaving two orphan 
daughters commended to his care. lie accepted the trust, provided 
for and educated them, as he did in the case of all his younger 
brothers and sisters, and declined to marry until all were settled in life 
except his younger step-sister, who was bred as a daughter under his 
own roof, and then given in marriage. When his aged father came to 
die Henry was at his side, as he had been for months, tending him with 
all a woman's care. The mortal sickness had been long and attended 
by great suffering. Henry was his father's minister to body and soul. 
The old man asked him to give the sacrament of our Lord's body and 
blood. The holy rite was performed, and a great peace rested on the 
dying man. The open shutters let in the growing hght of a wintry 
morning ; the father's arm was around the form of his ministering son 
who kneeled at his bed-side, the gray hairs of the one mingled with 
the glossy jet curls of the other- upon the pillow ; " Glory to God," 
fell from the lips of the dying man, and an unearthly light lingered for. 
a moment upon his wan features, and Alpheus Bascom passed from the 
chilly dawn of earth to that city which hath no need of the light of 
the sun, and where there is no night. Henry felt that the one man 
who understood him thoroughly and loved him wholly was gone; and 
great, admired, famous as he was, he stood orphaned, desolate. Never 
has a family been more bravely wrought for and tenderly nurtured 
than was that of Alpheus Bascom by his son Henry. 



Henky Bidleman Basgom. 589 

The step-mother and all his younger brothers and sisters were at 
once taken into his home, and ever remained as his own motlier and 
children. It must not be forgotten that in those days the current 
notion as to the support of Methodist preachers Avas low and stinted. 
"If the Lord will keep you humble," said an old steward, welcoming 
a new preacher to his circuit, " we will see to it that you are kept poor 
enough." 

Bascom's allowance from the Church for the iirst thirteen years of 
his ministry was $100 per annum ; and for more than half the time 
he did not receive half that pittance. The help, therefore, which he 
gave to Ins father's family involved him in debt, and from the meshes 
of that net he never succeeded in releasing himself. Even when his 
income became larger, when filling the chair of a college professor, or 
acting as the president of a university, it was yet so meager, and the 
necessary expenses of his station were so increased, that there w^as no 
chance of relief from his growing embarrassment. Again and again 
he made desperate exertions to free himself from the w^retched entan- 
glement. His quick and honorable spirit chafed at the sense of 
slavery which debt always imposes. At length, almost driven to mad- 
ness, he continued to lecture ni^ht after nio^ht to tear himself free 
from these chains, while the vulture gnawed at his vitals — notwith- 
standing an attack of bronchitis demanded rest and silence for a time — 
and thus was destroyed his trumpet-like voice, and for the last eleven 
ye'ars of his life he was obliged to struggle on with sadly impaired 
vocal organs. It is pitiable to remember that while hundreds of thou- 
sands of men and women enjoyed the loftiest and most vivid pleasure 
of their lives as the gift of his toil and genius, they suffered him, 
through cold neglect, to pine in want, shivering with the dread of dis- 
honor ; and forgot the sacred word, " Do ye not know that they which 
minister about holy things live of the things of the temple ; and they 
wdiich wait at the altar are partakers with the altar ? Even so hath 
the Lord ordained that they which preach tlie Gospel should live 
of the GospeL" 

So unremitting had been his labors as a student, despite the almost 
insuperable difiiculties of his lot, and so brilliant were his faculties for 
the acquisition of knowledge, that by the time he had been fourteen 
years a preacher he was called to the headship of a nascent institution 



590 Methodist Bishops. 

of learning styled Madison College, at Uniontown, Pennsylvania. 
From causes beyond liis control the venture was not a success, and at 
the end of three years he resigned. He then acted as the Agent of 
the American Colonization Society ; and in 1832 v/as called to the 
chair of Intellectual and Moral Science in Augusta Colleo^e, Kentuckv, 
a position tilled for ten years with credit to himself and advantage to 
the institution. He was then elected to the presidency of Transyl- 
i vania University, at Lexington, Kentucky, which, with much reluc- 
tance, he accepted, and discharged its duties with his accustomed zeal 
and fidelity until about a year before his death. For some years 
before 1828 he was much interested, and took an active part in the 
discussion of the question of ecclesiastical reform, which issued in the 
establishment that year of the Methodist Protestant Church. Although 
in favor at the time of most of the changes proposed, and especially 
urgent upon the right of agitation, which it was thought had been 
rudely denied in some quarters, he did not take the final step of the 
reformers. 

He was a member of the General Conference of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church from 1828 to 1841:. Although no man in these 
gathei'ings compared with him in the fame or the power of his ser- 
mons, he never opened his lij^s in debate. This w^as partly due to his 
diifidence, and partly owing to his great dislike, amounting almost to 
disgust, for tlie speech-making habit, so general and so baneful in 
deliberative assemblies, and such a delight with common-place m^n. 
Fie was, nevertheless, earnest and faithful here as every-where, doing 
his duty upon committees, for which he wrote many able reports. At 
the General Conference of 1811, although, I think, almost every 
other m^an on the floor made a speech, he resolutely held his peace, 
but when the time for action arrived he voted w^itli the minority, and 
cast in his lot with the delegates from the Southern Conferences. 

He was a commanding member, although silent, of the Louisville 
Convention of 1815, at which the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
was organized, and of the General Conference held at Petersburgh, 
Virginia, in 1856. It was his pen that wrote most of the important 
papers on his side of the question in the memorable division of the 
Church. In the last-named year he was elected the editor of the 
" Southern Methodist Quarterly Eeview," and also one of the com- 



Henry Bidleman Bascom. 591 

missioners to arrange the question in dispute between the two bodies. 
The duties of his three positions — the presidency of a university, the 
editorship of a quarterly, and a connnissionership charged with numerous 
dehcate and vexing questions, w^ere too much for his waning strength 
and unwearied industry, and all the time he was worried by debt. 

In May, 1850, he was elected to be one of the Bishops of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, South, but lived only long enough to preside 
at one Annual Conference — the St. Louis — held at Independence, 
Mo., in July. His superb physique had for years been yielding to 
the exhaustion resulting from undue labors, and to the pressure of 
care and sorrow upon an abnormally sensitive organization. The 
Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri Eivers, along which his route lay, 
were very low, and navigation was, therefore, much obstructed and 
wearisome ; the voyage was made in the scorching heat of mid-sum- 
mer, and the cholera was making frightful ravages throughout the 
region. On his way home from the Conference he stopped at St. 
Louis, and w^as importuned to preach. At first he declined on account 
of sickness and wasted strength, but then bethought himself and said, 
" I will, for it may be my last opportunity." A great congregation 
gathered in the afternoon, and hung entranced upon his. lips — but it 
was for the last time. The next day he pursued his way, and after 
much delay arrived at Louisville, hoping to reach his home in Lexing- 
ton. But it was denied him to die under his own roof. He made a 
last eifort, and against the remonstrance of his friend, the Rev. Dr. 
Stevenson, took the coach from his door at three in the morning, but 
was brought back in an hour a dying man. He breathed his last on 
Sunday morning, September 8, 1850, just at the hour when, for 
almost forty years, he had been used to meet the thousands who gath- 
ered to learn from him the way of life more perfectly. As those 
matchless lips were closing he said, " My only trust is in the goodness 
of Almighty God through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Llis 
noble form was followed to the grave by thousands of mourners, while 
his whole Church felt with unspeakable sorrow, " That a prince and a 
mighty man hath fallen that day in Israel." 

Bishop. Bascom was married in 1839 to Miss Yan Antwerp, of 
Isew York. His wife, a daughter, and son, survived him. The son 
has since passed away. 



592 Methodist Bishops. 

This is not tlie j^^ice for a critical estimate of Dr. Bascom's life, 
labors, and character, nor am I the man to make it. I honored and 
loved him while he lived, and now reverently and tenderly cherish his 
memory. Other hands than mine, then, must use the scalpel. His 
contemporaries believed him — and Vv'ith reason — to be, among Ameri- 
can Christian orators, facile jprinceps. and I knew^ him to be true and 
tender as a woman, sweet and artless as a child. The invidions dis- 
paragement of another's merits so often hurled from clerical lips 
never polluted his ; and pretense of critical acumen was never used 
by him as a cloak for a jealous hostility. He loved and honored his 
brethren of high and low degree, and especially was the friend and 
helper of the young preachers, and of those who were unfortunate. 
I suspect that the only speeches he ever made in Annual Conferences 
were in behalf of men who were in trouble. He was the last to believe 
evil of a brother, and nothing but sun-bright proof could convince 
him. He was never known to utter detraction ; and always found 
good in the poorest sermon when the preacher had honesty and sim- 
plicity. His knightly heart would peril influence and reputation, 
or even life itself, upon a friend's behalf, and though his purse was 
-scantily supplied, it was ever open to the needy. His inflexible will 
and dauntless courage bore him through trials so sore, and over oppo- 
sitions so fierce, that a less resolute man would have cowered in dis- 
may. His colossal genius and burning elocpence were consecrated to 
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The crown he wore was wrought 
of iron, and on it was graven Self-renunciation. As the departing 
traveler looks back upon the receding city at night, he beholds the 
myriad lights grouping themselves into a single glow ; as he who looks 
upon the heavens beholds a constellation gleaming in the light of a 
single star ; so he who recalls the past of Methodism on this continent, 
the labors, the sorrows, self-sacrifices, almost martyrdom, and the tri- 
umphs of its sons, finds rising to his lips the loved, the honored, the 
revered name of Henry B. Bascom. 





Gk^II. jCl 



^^^i/L-t/X^-Ww 



Ja.s.l±.CiL3.inlDers, fSxoTi;l!=r ..fiuLcuis. 
o-p7:cigit .187 7. 



Enoch Mather Marvin. 



BY REV. LUCIUS IT. BUGBEE, D.D. 



AMOKG Americans there is no pride more pardonable, and, witlial, 
more gratifying, than tliat which traces hneage back to the Puri- 
tan fathers. We do not know that Bishop Marvin ever indulged this 
pride ; nevertheless, he had good reason to feel gratilied in thinking 
of his ancestors, for the Marvins were among the earliest settlers of 
]S'ew England, and his great-grandfather, Elisha Marvin, married into 
the celebrated Cotton Mather family. 

Under date of " 15th April, 1635," an official record in England 
specified that the Marvyn family were registered to " imbarque in the 
ship ' Increase,' Robert Lea, Master, to New England." Among the 
original settlers of Hartford, Conn., were two brothers, Matthew 
and Reinold Marvin. Reinold's will is recorded among the Colony 
records of Say brook. In this will ]ie directs that to each of his grand- 
children " there be provided and given a Bible as soon as they are 
capable of using them." Members of the family held good ^Dositious 
as intelligent and useful citizens, and were marked by fine social quali- 
ties — £^ feature of character which was agreeably felt by all who came 
within the sphere of Bishop Marvin's influence. There were among 
them Church deacons, captains and lieutenants in the Indian wars 
and in the Colonial army, and representatives in the General Court. 

Elisha Marvin, great-grandson of Reinold Marvin, was born in 
Lyme, Conn., 1Y17, and died in 1801. He married Catherine Mather, 
who was related to Cotton Mather, of whose learning and literary 
industry all readers of American literature are well aware. Cotton 
Mather, D.D., published three hundred and eighty-two volumes, some 
of them very large, and at his death, in 1T28, he was reputed the 
greatest scholar and author America had then produced. Enoch, son 
of Elisha Marvin, was born in 1747. He married Euth Ely, and 
removed to Berkshire, Mass., where his son. Wells Ely, was born. He 
died in 1811, in Missouri, whither he had gone with his son in 1817. 
Wells Ely Marvin married a lady whose ancestors were Welsh, and 



596 Methodist Bishops. 

had settled in Missouri the same year with himself. He made his 
home ill Warren County, where he built a double log-cabin after the 
best fashion of those times, covering it with clapboards weighted down 
with poles. Here his third child, Enoch Mather Marvin, was born 
June 12, 1823. 

Wells Ely Marvin was not a member of any Chnrch. He died 
December 30, 1856, and was buried in the family grave-yard on the 
home place. One year after this, January 1, 1858, his wife died. She 
was a devout woman, a member of the Baptist Church, and by pre- 
cept and example instructed her children in the principles of Chris- 
tianity from their earliest years. That she was a woman of intelli- 
gence and energy may be inferred from the fact that in a small house, 
built for the purpose in the yard, she taught school, imparting to her 
own children and the youth of the neighborhood the elements of an 
English education. 

At the age of sixteen, in August, 1839, Enoch Mather Marvin joined 
the Methodist Episcopal Church as an anxious inquirer after salvation, 
but not until December, 1840, was he conscious of the believer's sense 
of pardon and acceptance with G©d. That he placed a high value 
upon his Church membership may be inferred from the following 
passage taken from one of his best sermons, '' Christ and the Church : " 

Soon after I bad united wi:h the Church I had an experience I am sure I 
can never forget. I was in the saddle, on the Lord's daj', on my way to a social 
meeting in the country. The aspects of the autumn scenery are as distinct in 
my memory as if it had been only yesterday ; the warm sun lay upon the mottled 
foliage, and there seemed the hush of a hallowed peace upon the face of nature. 
All at once the thought came to me, "I am in the Church, and it is in my powder 
now, by my unholy living, to bring a blot on the Church, and to dishonor the 
Saviour."' For a time the reflection seemed insupportable; it was almost more 
than I could bear. 

This incident furnislies, at this early period of his career, a forcible 
illustration of the tenderness of his conscience, a characteristic often 
manifested in his later life ; indeed, at times, in his self-examinations, 
his scrutiny of motives seemed almost morbid. His mind, eager for 
knowledge and desirous to prove all things, was much agitated on 
points of dispute between Immersionists and Pedo-baptists. A tract 
on Baptism, by Eev. Peter Doub, of I^orth Carolina, settled his doubts. 



Eis^ocH Mather Marvin. 597 

He was licensed to preacli in 1841, that ^^ear was admitted on 
trial into the Missouri Conference, and in- 1813 was ordained dea- 
con, and elder in 1845. This year he was married to her who proved 
herself a helpmeet indeed to him, and with whoni his life was bound 
up, as that characteristic and delicate tribute to his wife in the dedi- 
cation of his late book of sermons testifies. Of his domestic traits 
we shall have occasion to speak further on. 

After much experience in mission, circuit, and station work, he 
was made Presiding Elder of St. Charles District, in 1852. He was 
financial agent for St. Charles' College in 1854-55, and the result of 
his labors in that sphere was an endowment fund, the existence of 
which at present is testimony of its usefulness ; for it is one of the 
very few of that date that survives among us. He was next appointed 
to the pastoral charge of Centenary Church, St. Louis, and up to 
1862 filled other appointments in that city. 

During his pastorate of Centenary Church occurred an event 
which brought him prominently before the public, and illustrated the 
strength of his convictions and how unswervingly zealous he was in 
the discharge of duties he thought incumbent upon him. In the 
autumn of 1859 a Roman Catholic priest delivered in the city a course 
of lectures on questions at issue between Romanism and Protestant- 
ism. Being published in the " Missouri Republican," these lectures 
were extensively circulated. The pastor of Centenary Church felt 
bound by his ordination vow to " be ready with all faithful dih'gence 
to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines, contrary 
to God's word ; " and, in obedience to his convictions, commenced a 
series of replies. Although his lectures extended to twenty-three, he 
had large audiences throughout, who warmly testified to his ability in 
defending the faith. They were published in the '' Republican," and 
had a wide reading. They were afterward issued in book form — his 
first book, " Marvin's Lectures," a 12mo of 333 pages. 

In consequence of his Southern sympathies during the civil war, 
he found it necessary to leave St. Louis in 1862. This was a turning- 
point in his life. His eminently unselfish nature found ample 
scope for its exercise and development in the arduous duties of chap- 
lain to the armies in Arkansas and Texas, in preaching to the soldiers 
in camp and on the march, and ministering to them in hospitals. 



598 Methodist Bishops. 

Under his stirring eloquence and vivid presentation of gospel truths 
many conversions took place, and in consequence he became widely 
known as a preacher. His work during the w^ar had separated him 
for a long time from liis family, but upon being appointed to the 
pastoral charge of the Church in Marshall, Texas, about the close of 
the war, he was rejoined by them. He became wddely known and 
was every-where favorably spoken of for his power and unction as a 
preacher and his unequaled social excellence as a man ; and for some 
time before the meeting of the General Conference, at ISTew Orleans, 
in the spring of 1866, the preachers and people of the South-west and 
the trans-Mississippi department had him in view as the first new Bish- 
op that would be made. Knowing that he had been talked of as a can- 
didate for the episcopal office, his sensitive nature would not allow him 
to be present at the Conference until the election was over ; he wished 
to avoid even the appearance of personal influence. Tliis was com- 
mendable modesty. He was elected on the first ballot, receiving 73 
out of 144 votes. 

The manner in which he discharged the duties of the episcopal 
office proved his fitness for it, and the wisdom of his election. His 
first episcopal tour took in the Indian nation, and he signalized his 
first year in the E]3iscopacy by an act of characteristic self-sacrifice, 
but for which the Indian Mission Conference must have ceased to 
exist. It was during the late civil war, and both armies had so preyed 
on the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Creek Indians that they 
were greatly impoverished, the people being reduced to the point of 
starvation, and there appeared but little hope of being able to support 
the preachers. The vital question was, Could the organization of the 
Conference be kept up 1 In this emergency Bishop Marvin showed 
that Christian spirit of disinterested self-sacrifice which has endeared 
him to the whole Church, and proved how deeply he felt his responsi- 
bility for the success of the Gospel. The Conference v/as held, preach- 
ers were appointed to their circuits, and for their support he drew on 
himself for $5,000, in quarterly installments ; and having finished the 
routine of official work, he spent the winter traveling through the 
Church at large, pleading, in his eloquent and forcible way, the cause 
of the Indians, and reimbursing the empty treasury to meet his drafts. 
This is but one instance of many such acts of Christian devotion, which 



Et^ocii Mather Marvin. 599 

displayed alike liis eapacitj for planning and enterprise and tlie utter 
self-abnegation with wliicli he threw his whole being into the work of 
the Christian ministry. 

Before the completion of the overland railroad the Paciiic work 
fell to him. He went out by the isthmus, held two sessions of the 
Conference there, and after seventeen months' absence returned by 
the completed railroad to his home in St. Louis. Speaking of Bishop 
Marvin's labors in the West, Bishop M'Tyeire says : " In two visita- 
tions to our farthest West I have been able to find few places where 
Bishop Marvin had not been. Many paths he alone has traveled. 
Every-where his name was as ointment poured forth." 

The General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, had instructed the College of Bishops to send out one of their 
number to ordain native preachers in China ; in addition to this, the 
need of a general reconnaissance of the missionary field of the East 
was felt, as a guide to future missionary operations. When, in May, 
1876, the question came up in the College of Bishops, " Who will go 
for us ? " " Here am I ; send me ! " was the response of this devoted 
servant of God. How well he discharged this trust his book, " The 
East by Way of the West," is convincing proof. In October, 1877, 
after holding Conferences in Colorado and California, he was met at 
San Francisco by a congenial fellow-traveler, the Rev. E. K. Hendrix, 
of Missouri. The importance attached to this mission, and the esteem 
in which Bishop Marvin w^as held, was testified in a farewell meeting 
in which the brethren recommended him to the grace of God. 

He went out through the gates of the West, and having made a tour 
round the world, widening the scope of his mind, enlarging his affec- 
tions, with his heart more than ever desirous to see the whole world 
brought under the power of the Gospel, he returned through the 
gates of the East the following year. Into no other of his published 
works has he infused so much of his own rare character as he lays 
before the reader of " The East by Way of the West," the work giv- 
ing an account of his travels. 

Previous to his departure on this survey in the interests of the 

Church, the Rev. Dr. Summers, of the '' Christian Advocate," requested 

him to contribute a letter once a week. He did so ; and for keen, 

accurate observation, graphic description, general knowledge of meii' 

35 



600 Methodist Bishops. 

and things, these letters are unsurpassed ; and in missionary enter- 
prise they are altogether unique — these jottings of the moment on 
junk and shij^board, after a day's ride, in his tent, or in the busy 
city. These letters were afterward republished in the work we have 
already mentioned : " The East by Way of the West." This work is 
replete with vivid pictures of life in the Eastern countries, showing to 
the Christian reader the great need for missionary effort on behalf of 
the heathen ; and this thought — the conversion of the heathen — seems 
to have been ever uppermost in the writer's mind ; all through the 
book this is revealed as his chief care and anxiety. Whenever he sees 
a lovely prospect in the material world of heathendom, he cannot 
finish the picture without calling to mind the saddening thought that 
the good news of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ has not reached 
the beniglited inhabitants of this otherwise beautiful country. The 
deep interest he took in missionary work is manifested in the delight 
with which he partook of the Lord's Supper with some heathen con- 
verts at Dai Nippon, Japan. He says : 

After baptism the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was administered, Dr. 
Machiy officiating. With what joy I met these men, so recentlj^in the darkness 
of Sintooism and Buddhism, now kneeling at the cross of Christ ! While we 
broke the bread together God himself was present, and we did eat of angels' 
food ; and while we drank the wine we had already a foretaste of that juice of 
the vine which the Lord will drink new with his people in his Father's kingdom. 

Again, after describing a Sabbath spent on the Inland Sea of one 
of the Japanese Islands, he says : 

So passed our Sabbath in the Inland Sen, alternately reading the Scriptures 
and looking out upon the mingled scenes of natural beauty and human toil, un- 
relieved by any hallowed day. On them was the primal curse of labor unre- 
lieved by our blessed Sabbath light. How my heart yearned toward them! O 
my blessed Lord, when will thy sluggish Church send its message of peace to 
every one of these villages ? 

While considering this topic — the missionary spirit by which he 
was animated — we cannot refrain from quoting a passage in which he 
urges the claims of the heathen with Pauline fervor and logic : 

The conversion of China would go far to complete the conquest of the world 
for Christ. It is the great achievement which the Church has before it now. 
That accomplished, between Russia and China on this side and the north, and 



Enoch Mather Marvin. 601 

Europe on the other, Western Asia would be compelled to capitulate ; and as 
for Africa, it will ultimately be what Europe and Asia make it. 

The Churches of America are chiefly responsible for the conquest of China. 
Europe is remote. There are the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, the 
Indian Ocean, the Straits of Malacca, and the China Sea, to be traversed. From 
America there is only the Pacific Ocean. 

Of the Churches in America, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, has the 
greatest responsibility in the premises. All the other great denominations have 
scattered their forces in the East. We are nowhere but in China. We can con- 
centrate. We can bring the great resources of a powerful and wealthy com- 
munity to bear here. God is merciful to us in that his providence has withheld 
us from other fields, that we may deliver our full strength on this, the most im- 
portant of aW—thls, which is the key of the campaign. 

Toward the close of tlie book, after describing the fields for mis- 
sionary enterprises, he exclaims : 

But amid it all my heart yearns for China ! There is our opportunity. God 
himself has set before us the great and effectual door there. By his help and 
grace we will go in and possess the land ! 

On his way home, in Jnly and Angnst, 1877, with his fellow-trav- 
eler, he worthily represented the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
before the British Wesleyan Conference at Bristol, then in its one 
hundred and forty-fourth session. 

That circuit of the globe was a fitting climax of Bishop Marvin's 
successful and busy life. He was w^ell prepared to profit by a year of 
travel. lie had a talent for observation which not one in a thousand 
possesses, as the minute and detailed descriptions of things which he 
could have but little time to study carefully fully prove. He had a 
zealous missionary spirit, and this survey of the mission field in the 
cause of his Master, was carried out by him as a labor of love ; and as 
he surveyed the field his zeal was fired anew, his faith in the power of 
the Gospel to redeem these millions of benighted heathen, was con- 
firmed ; and if he had lived long enough, it would have borne much 
fruit in well-directed, energetic missionary labors at home. Plis out- 
look upon the world was extended, and the responsibilities of the 
Church seemed to him more than ever solemn and binding. To quote 
from Bishop M'Tyeire's memorial, discourse : 

The bed of his mind was deepened by it; his heart was enlarged; the fervor 
of his spirit was increased. To the uttermost parts of the earth he measured 



602 Methodist Bishops. 

the promised inheritance, and instead of being appalled at its extent and diffi- 
culty, he encouraged the Church that we are fully able to possess it. More than 
ever the world, redeemed, was on his heart; he took it all in, and claimed it for 
Christ. He realized intensely the necessity and possibility of its conversion to God. 
As he went, he preached — on the Pacific seas, in Japan, in China, in India, in Egypt, 
in Jerusalem, in Athens, on the Red Sea, on the Mediterranean, on the Atlantic. 

Describing the events preceding Bishop Marvin's illness and death. 
Bishop M'Tyeire says : 

A year from the day he left home for his great tour he returned, and was 
happy again in the bosom of his family. An accumulated correspondence hav- 
ing been disposed of, he began his round of Annual Conferences the last week 
in August. His colleagues, in apportioning their work, (that he might be near 
home,) had assigned him the episcopal district which included the Missouri and 
bordering Conferences. In their plan a rest had been laid in the midst of the ses- 
sions; but for reasons, doubtless in themselves good, bretliren desired a change 
in time, and to this, unselfishly, but unwisely, he consented. After holding the 
AVestern at Atchison, he came back and held the St. Louis Conference ; then on 
to Fulton, presiding over -the Missouri Conference. The last days of its session 
Avere very heavy to him on account of the death of liis only brother. Though 
but a day's journey distant, he had not time to look upon the dead face — hurry- 
ing on to the Choctaw Nation, for the Indian Mission Conference ; that over, he 
went to Independence, to preside over the South-west Missouri Conference. Five 
Annual Conferences in five weeks ! Too much even for a strong man. At tlie 
close of this tour his nervous system was prostrate. 

I know not another assembly the presidency of which is so exhausting as an 
Annual Conference. The Bishop in the chair during the day is not burdened ; 
but when the Conference adjourns he meets the presiding elders, to map out the 
work and consult on the appointments. The wants of people and preachers 
are canvassed, and more than wants — fitnesses and possible arrangements for the 
greatest good to the greatest number. The "Cabinet" adjourns sometimes 
at a late hour, but there is no pause for him. He lies down and rises up with 
this care of all the Churches; the tension is continuous. Kor is relief always 
brought by the announcement of appointments, and adjournment sine die. The 
hardest things to bear sometimes follow after— the dissatisfaction of some who 
take hasty and partial views of the work done. 

At home again, lie may recuperate ; for not until December 5 does his next 
and last Conference convene— the Mississippi. He is writing, or revising, final 
chapters of his book, churches are to be dedicated, and his services are in de- 
mand for other meetings. 

On Sunday, Kov. 19, 1877, the Bishop addressed the Sunday-school 
of Centenary Church, St. Louis, and after the address preached on 



Enoch Mather IvIarvin. 603 

the text : " Blessed are tliey that do his commandments, that the j may 
have right to the tree of hfe, and may enter in through the gates into 
the city." Taking a hasty lunch after preaching, in the afternoon of 
the same day, he went to Kirkwood, about thirteen miles west of the 
city, and dedicated a new church, preaching on : " And I saw no tem- 
ple therein : for the Lord God Ahiiighty and the Lamb are the ten\- 
ple of it : " showing in his discourse the need of temples of worship 
here, their use to the Church in the world, and that in the heavenly 
world these earthly temples shall be done away with. 

In the preparation of this sketch we have had to dej^end for our 
material chiefly on the memorial sermon of Bishop M'Tyeire already 
mentioned, delivered in Centenary Church, St. Louis, November 29, 
1877, and we feel we cannot do better than give our readers the clos- 
ing scenes of .Bishop Marvin's life, and estimate of his w^ork and char- 
acter, as presented by his colleague and fellow-laborer in the Church 
in this memorial sermon. Speaking of the sermon on the text: 
^' And I saw no temple therein, etc," Bishop M'Tyeire says : 

It was his last sermon. That night he liad a slight chill, but returned home 
Monday morning, and made no mention of it to his family. Monday evening, 
with his wife, was spent at a friend's house, and he was even more cheerful than 
usual. Tuesday morning he made an engagement to visit the Orphan Asylum 
and talk to the inmates. That night a heavy chill came on. He told them he 
had not suffered so for years. The pain in the side soon involved the lungs. 
Domestic treatment availing not, he consented that the family physician should 
be called. Thursday he had some proof sheets read to him. Coming in on 
this, his physician positively interdicted all work. Saturday he dictated to his 
daughter notes to Bishop Keener and myself, about attending his Conferences. 
He complained of his breathing. A consultation was called, and the case was 
thought not so bad if there were any thing to build upon. Sunday morning h(* 
inquired of his wife, "Is not this the Lord's day?" Upon being answered in 
the affirmative, he asked, "Have tlie children gone to Sunday-school ? " That 
evening he said to the doctor : "I think you have cause to be alarmed ; I cannot 
go through such another night." His physicians were with him at midnight. 
His wife observed he was breathing heavily ; but that was not unusual with him 
when lying on his back, and, lioping he would get some rest in sleep, she did not 
disturb him. At four o'clock she offered him the prescribed medicine. He 
could not be aroused ! She called her son and the family, but he waked to con- 
sciousness no more. In fifteen minutes he was dead. There w^ere no last words, 
no messages, no allusions at any time as to his departure being at hand. We 



60i Methodist Bishops. 

must take his life for that. " And Enoch walked with God : and he was not; 
for God took him." 

Dividing the years of his life into three parts, just two thirds were spent in 
direct effort for the salvation of mankind. By every token he was still growing 
in grace, in polish, and in power, and we looked for his social intercourse, his 
pulpit ministrations, and his official counsels, to be more than ever enricJied by 
Ills late opportunities. His plans and ours for greater usefulness were projected 
upon the future, when suddenly he was taken off. . . . He was at his prime — 
never so useful, so widely known, or so much beloved as when suddenly removed. 
Do you exclaim : Mysterious Providence ! 

It is something for the Church to have a clear impression of Christian and 
ministerial excellence, in which the ideal and the real nearly approach each 
other — a picture to be hung up in the hearts of the people. Old age has its infirmi- 
ties, and sometimes the blunders of later life mar the work that was done before. 
But when by quick and sudden movement the seal is, taken up the clean-cut out- 
lines are left without a blur. We like pictures of our friends taken when in 
health, and at their best condition. So will the Church think of Bishop Marvin, 
and look up to that standard long after the days of her mourning are ended. . . . 

Bishop Marvin's preaching and living produced a deep impression : may we 
inquire into the secret of his power ? In addition to the general qualities already 
spoken of as making up a well-rounded character, we see in him ability to learn 
njuch from original sources — communing with God, with himself, with men and 
nature. He drew largely from his experience ; and this imparted a characteris- 
tic freshness and variety to his ministrati(ms. 

Courage, firmness, and aggressiveness were not wanting in him ; but these 
were veiled under a physical form of weakness, much-enduring and uncomplaining 
■ — a benevolent eye, a conciliating voice. All the natural forces that were ex- 
cited drew to sympathy, and not to antagonism or antipathy. Beyond the offense 
of the cross there was no incidental offense to discount his influence. The mob 
that stoned Whitefield would have fought for Summerfield. 

It was a privilege to counsel with him. His mental uprightness, his candor 
and charity, gave meaning to those w^ords : "We took sweet counsel together." 
His love for his brethren was wonderful. He showed it, and did not mind say- 
ing outright, "I love you." He w^as not given to judging his fellow-men, 
but he judged himself severely. He dealt closely with his own conscience; 
and thus it came that he reached and searched the consciences of others. As 
an instance of this hai^itual self-scrutiny take a paragraph from his last Preface: 

"It is needless for me to profess a good motive in preparing these discourses 
for the press, for every Christian man is supposed to act upon good motives; yet, 
truth to tell, I have never been quite as well satisfied with my own motives as I 
would like to be ; for while I trust that the Move of Christ constraineth me,' 
still, upon any deep introspection, I have occasion to suspect the presence of 



Enoch Mather MAKvm. 605 

a subtle selfishness and vanity, from which I find no resort but in atoning mercy. 
I can only pray God that if there be any taint of any such thing in the publica- , 
tion of this volume, the all-saving blood may wash it away, and that the Holy 
Spirit may make my poor work the instrument of salvation to some who are in 
sin, and of edification to those wlio are already in Christ." 

Those sermons had been prayed over before. With that end constantly in 
view, his less elaborate productions had been honored with the demonstration 
of the Spirit. Prevailing with God, he prevailed with men, and had an unction 
from the Holy One. His traveling companion gave me this incident : They had 
gone from Shanghai into the interior of China, and seen many strange things, 
about which on tlieir return he was indulging some humorous remarks. Suddenly 
he checked himself in poignant sorrow and penitent prayer. " What! God's serv- 
ant in the presence of paganism, in this valley of dry bones, indulging merri- 
ment! Sorrow is here better than laughter." 

He was consecrated. His love-feast expression was, that if there was any 
thing pertaining to him which had not been consecrated to God, lie prayed to 
know what it was, that he might lay it also on the altar. 

Brethren, this is Thanksgiving-day, and by appointment, which he had ac- 
cepted, Bishop Marvin was to have preached in this pulpit at this hour. Can 
we not, even with the drapery of death about us, follow the apostolic injunc- 
tion, ''In every tiling give thanks?" Can we not, with the Psalmist, "sing of 
mercy and judgment ? " Let the Church give thanks that God vouchsafed to her 
this "chosen vessel," and you of Missouri especially, for "he was a burning and 
a shining light," and it was your privilege, for a season, to rejoice in his light. 

Can his family give thanks ? Already it has been done, and without pre- 
meditation. Soon after he breathed his last, and the sad, unexpected tidings 
stole abroad in darkness, friends hastened to comfort them. The widowed wife 
met the first that reached the door, with a face of chastened peace, exclaiming, 
"Isn't God good to me? he died at liome!^'' She and her children were not 
strangers to the fear that he might die of sickness among strangers, or by some 
accident in his journeyings on land or sea. Living and laboring abroad, to them 
and to him it was granted, that he should die at home. 

Bishop Marvin added to liis fame and popularity by several pub- 
lished works, and in these he appears no less successful as an author 
than he had already proved himself as a preacher and pastor. His 
first book, ''Marvin's Lectures," was the outcome of the series of 
controversial discourses delivered in reply to the attacks of a Eoman 
Catholic priest, as we have before stated, in 1859. In his "Life of 
Capers," while unfolding to his readers, in his terse, nervous style, 
the character of his friend with a rare insight and discernment, he 



600 Methodist Bishops. 

unconscioiislj reveals himseK in the happy expression of some of his 
best thoughts. '' The Work of Christ," published some years ago, 
handles in no negative way some of the profonndest topics of Christian 
inquiry. A volume of " Sermons," now in the second edition, has lately 
been warmly welcomed by the Church ; and those avIio were accustomed 
to hear his eloquent discourses with the additional charm of his mag- 
netic presence, will prize this the more highly since now he can be 
heard no more. His addresses and sermons before the Annual Con- 
ferences and on other occasions have often been published by special 
request. His last literary work was the preparation for the press of 
his " Letters of Travel Round the World," and on which he worked 
till within a few days of his death. This posthumous work came out 
in 1878 under the title, '' The East by Way of the West." In a pre- 
vious part of this narrative we have mentioned this work, and we 
there express our belief that this is the most characteristic of all his 
published writings. The strong missionary s]3irit manifested through- 
out the work has been amply set forth. His capacity for observation 
is evident on almost every page, and is fully equaled by his fine de- 
scriptive powers. I^othiDg essential to a complete picture is omitted ; 
the reader seems to see with his own eyes every thing placed before 
him by this energetic traveler; and to this minute accuracy in ob- 
servation, and this j)Ower of description, thoughts that stir the deepest 
and holiest emotions of the heart are added. His power of illustra- 
tion appears truly wonderful. To give his reader an idea of Eastern 
scenery and objects he is never at a loss for illustrations taken from 
home surroundings, and his adaptation of them is sure to convey the 
idea intended. This was one of the most powerful elements of liis 
success as a preacher of the word. His descriptions of things were 
vivid pictures of them ; there was no danger of ambiguity ; the most 
unlettered of his hearers understood and felt his utterances, and search- 
ing his own heart with such unflinching scrutiny, his illustrations, 
bearing upon the questions which generally set hearts on the search 
for God, could not fail to make themselves felt. The marked social 
qualities of the early Marvins have been spoken of. No one was 
better adapted for the social duties of the ministry than was Bishop 
Marvin. He found exquisite pleasure in the society of his kind ; his 
keenly sympathetic nature was ever ready to anticipate the wants of 



Enoch Mather Makvin. 607 

others ; in seasons of joy lie conld rejoice witli tliose wlio rejoiced, and 
none could more truly and delicately minister consolation to those 
who mourned. There was a magnetism about him which, when he 
occupied the pulpit or was the center of the social circle, drew all 
hearts toward him. S})eaking of his compagnon de voyage^ he says : 

I count myself happy in that I go not upon this journey alone. . . . When 
he learned of- my contemphited tour he immediately proposed to be my com- 
panion of the way. I had known him from his boyhood, and received the pro- 
posal with delio-ht. His presence will contribute much to the objects of the 
tour, will be a great pleasure to me, will afford me much of that deep and hal- 
loAved experience which is realized in the "fellowship of s;dnts," and be helpful 
to me in many ways. 

Again : 

Brother IT. and I are reading the Bible in both Testaments, in course, with 
conversational comments in connection with our morning prayers. For tins our 
double state-room is very convenient. In these readings and prayers we come 
very near to God. 

Writing of the welcome the travelers received from Christians on 
the shores of China, he exclaims : 

Ah! what an old-time Methodist greeting was in the face and voice of our 
dear Sister Lambuth, as she greeted us on the veranda, and how fully hiis the 
first tone of the greeting been followed up from that moment of meeting until 
now ! Blessed be the name of Gl-od for all the sweet charities and endearments 
of Christian life and hospitality! Our Saviour promised to those who should 
forsake houses and lands and homes for the Gospel's sake, that they should have 
a hundred-fold, even in this present time — fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, 
homes — and I hereby testify that he has kept his word to me. In America, in Ja- 
pan, in China, he has made the promise good. 

So dear to him were the delights of home and the society of his 
loved ones, that only his greater love for the Church and Christ, and 
his firm faith in God's protecting care, could have induced him to 
make the prolonged absences he did. 

He had a great fund of humor and keen perception of the ludi- 
crous. Take his description of the camel : 

Of all dumb brutes I have ever seen the camel is the most unshapely. With 
his long hind legs, barely tacked on to his body; the huuip on his back like a 
hideous deformity; his thin, long, round neck, taking a start downward, and 
then turning up as if drawn by a convulsion; the two straight forelegs set under 



608 Methodist Bishops. 

the chest like stilts; he stands before you in an apologetic attitude, as if he were 
asking pardon of the universe for having been obtruded upon it. Add to this 
the miserable head, set on the upturned end of the neck, with the facial line, 
from the ear to the unhappy-looking nostrils, level with the horizon, looking like 
a statue of misery — a mute, perpetual appeal for pity — and you have the ideal 
of the ugly standing before you eiglit feet high. 

His well-stored mind was a wonder to all who knew him. He 
seemed so busy at all times with the duties of his office and the vari- 
ous trusts committed to his care, as to have no time for study to acquire 
such an amount of information on a wide range of subjects as he had 
command of. But such a mind could hardly help gathering knowl- 
edge — knowledge could not be kept from it. He was well versed in 
theology ; he had a good command of general history ; he had devoted 
some time to scientific reading, and had not neglected metaphysics ; 
he had read some Latin, and had acquired enough Greek for a critical 
study of the Scri23tures. As a speaker his style was fluent and per- 
spicuous to a rare degree of excellence, and often combined elegance 
and eloquence, especially, as often was the case, when his delivery was 
vehement and impassioned. The same beauties of expression appear 
in his writings ; his descriptions are wonderfully lucid and graphic, 
and passages of rhetorical beauty and deep pathos occur frequently. 

Bishop Marvin's industry was untiring. His active mind saw 
necessary woi'k a long way ahead of him, and w^hen his keen foresight 
had surroimded him with arduous labors, his severe conscientiousness 
would not abate one whit of what lie considered duty. He lived an 
intense life. The moving thought of his life seemed to be, " There is 
so mucli to be done for the Master, and such a short time to do it ! 
Am I always at the post of duty ? " His incessant labors and ever- 
increasing cares in behalf of the Church made irreparable inroads on 
his constitution, and rendered him an easy prey to disease. And 
yet how few in such a short life accomplish so much ! What a life 
of true, unselfish heroism his was ! Had he chosen a more flowery 
path he might have prolonged his life many years: but no; fame, 
family, friends, health, self, all were laid at the foot of the cross, and 
the sacrifice was counted as nothing if he could but win souls to 
Christ, and be conscious of the Master's approval. His life was an 
example to the Church. 




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David Seth Doggett. 



BY EEY. JOHN E. EDWAKDS, D.D. 



SEY. DAYID SETH DOGGETT, D.D., one of the Bishops of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was born in Lancaster 
County, Ya., January 26, 1810, and died at his residence in the city 
of Eichmond, Ya., October 27, 1880, in the seventy-first year of his 
age. He was a descendant, on his father's side of the house, from an 
old English family that immigrated to America long before the Revo- 
lutionary War. His great-grandfather, the Rev. John Doggett, was 
a clergyman in the Established Church of England, and, on coming 
to America, settled in Lancaster County, Ya., and was for a number 
of years rector of White Chapel Church in that county, during colo- 
lual times. He died in a ripe old age, and his remains were interred 
under the floor of the old White Chapel Church. He left a son who 
was the father of John Doggett, and John Doggett was the father of 
the late Bishop Doggett. It does not fall in with the design of this 
sketch to say any thing furtlier with regard to the lineage and descent 
of the Bishop, excepting that it was a family of high respectability, 
and that the immediate ancestors of Bishop Doggett were stanch 
friends of the Colonies, and took a prominent and heroic part in the 
war of the Revolution, which resulted in the establishment of Ameri- 
can Independence. 

Mr. John Doggett, the father of Bishop Doggett, just at the close 
of the Revolutionary War married Miss Mary Smith, of the city of 
Philadelphia, and removed at once to the estate and old homestead 
bequeathed him by his father, in Lancaster County, lying at the 
eastern extremity of what has long been known as the "I^orthern 
JN'eck of Yirginia." As early as 1Y92 John Doggett and his wife 
made a profession of religion under the ministry of one of the pioneer 
Methodist preachers who visited that section of the country, and 
united with the Methodist Episcopal Church. Their house became a 



612 Methodist Bishops. 

preacliing-place for the Methodist itinerants before church edifices 
were erected in the " Northern l^eck." Mr. John Dog.2;ett became a 
class-leader, then an exhorter, and in turn a local preacher; all of 
which positions he tilled with credit and honor, both to himself and 
to his Chnrch. 

Ten children w^ere born to the Eev. John and Mary Doggett — four 
sons and six daughters. David Seth Doggett was one of the latest 
born. AYhile he was yet a mere boy his father died, leaving him to 
the care of his widowed mother, and specially to the guardianship of 
his elder brother, Cyrus Doggett, now the Kev. Cyrus Doggett, who 
is still living, after a long life of eminent usefulness both as a citizen 
and as a preacher of the Gospel. 

Young David S. Doggett received his elementary education at 
what were known as neighborhood schools, after which he was entered 
as a pupil in the ISTorthumberland Academy, in which Rev. Mr. Thorn- 
ton was principal, and Mr. Cyrus Doggett was an assistant. The 
young student made rapid proficiency in his course of studj' ; and, in 
obedience to the wishes of his father, as expressed before his death, 
began to prepare himself for the profession of the law. While at the 
academy, and when he was in the seventeenth year of his age, he pro- 
fessed conversion, and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church at old 
"White Marsh Church, in the Lancaster Circuit, then in the bounds 
of the old Baltimore Conference. 

It was not long before young Doggett felt that he was " inwardly 
moved by the Holy Ghost " to ]3reach the GosjdcI. This conviction 
grew upon him until he determined to abandon the law as a pro- 
fession, and to enter the itinerant ministry. On leaving the academy 
he engaged in school teaching for one year in Orange County, Ya. 
Here he devoted himself to such preparation as time and opportunity 
allowed for the work of preacliing the Gospel. He acted as class- 
leader for the Church nearest his school, conducted prayer-meetings, 
and exhorted the people, and in due time received a recommendation 
to be admitted on trial in the traveling connection of the Methodist 
Episcopal Churcli. February, 1829, he was admitted into the Yirginia 
Annual Conference as a probationer, and assigned as " helper," or 
junior preacher, on the Boanoke Circuit, in the State of l^orth Caro- 
lina — the larger part of that State then being in the bounds of the 



David Setii Doggett. 613 

Virginia Conference. The young preaclier very soon acquired great 
popularity, and achieved decided success. 

He was young, and handsome in person. His manners were win- 
nino-, and withal he was an exceedingly eloquent and powerful 
preacher for one of his years— being less than twenty years of age. 
The following year, 1830, he was sent to the Mattamuskeet Circuit, 
in the lowlands of l^orth Carolina, than which, at that time, there 
was not a less desirable circuit in the Virginia Conference. On this 
field of labor he preached with wonderful success. Large additions 
were made to the Church under his ministry, and he went up to the 
Conference bearing with him the affections of his people, and loaded 
with testimonials of their appreciation of his earnest and effective 
labors amono^ them. 

The next year, 1831, being his third year in the Conference, Mr. 
Doggett was stationed in Petersburgh, Va., an appointment that was 
scarcely second to any charge in Virginia. Here he remained two years, 
enjoying unprecedented popularity, and achieving almost unparalleled 
success. He had now acquired the fame and reputation of a singu- 
larly gifted and wonderfully eloquent preacher, and w^as on the high 
road to marked distinction in the ministry of his Church. Through 
a succession of years, following his pastorate in Petersburgh, he con- 
tinued to fill the largest and best charges in the Conference — as Lynch- 
burgh, Norfolk, and Pichmond, and again Petersburgh, until 1841, 
when he was elected to the Chair of Mental and Moral Philosophy in 
Pandolph Macon College, a professorship wdiich he filled with marked 
ability for the space of six years, when he again fell back into the 
regular pastorate, and again took the round of the leading stations in 
the Conference. 

In 1851 he was appointed to the editorship of the " Southern 
Methodist Quarterly Review,'' a position he held for seven years ; and, 
with the exception of one year during this period, he received his 
appointments as pastor in charge of the largest city stations, perform- 
ing the double work of pastor and editor at the same time, and doing 
his w^ork well and ably in both departments of service. He was then 
Presiding Elder on the Pichmond District for four years, his term of 
service closing about the commencement of our late civil war. Dur- 
ing the war he was pastor in Pichmond. For one year following the 



614 Methodist Bishops. 

close of hostilities lie was associated with the Rev. John E. Edwards, 
D.D., in the proprietorship and editorial conduct of a new religious 
paper published in the interests of Southern Methodism, under the 
name and title of the '' Episcopal Methodist." 

At the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, held in the city of New Orleans, April, 1866, bj a flattering 
vote, Mr. Doggett was elected one of the Bishops of his Church, and 
entered at once upon his episcopal duties. This position he filled 
with eminent ability and with great satisfaction to the Church until 
his work was done, and God called him from labor to reward. 

The foregoing is a mere fragmentary outline of the hfe and labors 
of Bishop Doggett. We now proceed to give a rapidly condensed 
review of the character of this almost peerless man, as exemplified 
through fifty-one years in the ministry. 

Bishop Doggett, in his prime, and before incessant toil and advanc- 
ing years ha,d undermined his constitution and robbed him of his 
elasticity and manly vigor, was an unusually handsome and courtly 
man in port and presence. He was a little less than six feet in stat- 
ure, his complexion bright and ruddy, his features delicately chiseled, 
his eyes a lustrous blue, and his hands and head a model for the 
sculptor. 

As a speaker, Bishop Doggett had a finely modulated voice, with 
striking facial expression, graceful and appropriate gesture, all of 
which was rendered doubly effective by the genuine and unaffected 
goodness that beamed in every, feature, and shone out so conspicuously 
in every utterance of his eloquent lips. 

As a preacher he had but few equals on this continent. There is 
no exaggeration in saying that he was a prince in the pulpit. At 
camp-meetings and on great out-door occasions he surpassed himself, 
so to speak, in preaching. The presence of the great congregation 
inspired him ; and, breaking away from the trammels of restraint, he 
gave himself up to the impulses and suggestions of the occasions, 
and preached with a pathos and power that was perfectly marvelous. 
He swayed the masses with his eloquence, and was instrumental in the 
conversion of hundreds of people who have lived to cherish his 
memory, and prove an ornament to the Church of God. 

His mode of sermonizing was original and peculiarly his own. 



David Seth Doggett. 615 

From his text, which not imfrequently embraced a whole paragraph, 
he deduced liis subject, whicli he ehicidated by a strikingly beautiful 
and apposite introduction of all the words and phrases in the text, 
weaving the whole into an elegantly wrought piece of net-work that 
awakened admiration by the skill displayed in the arrangement, 
engaged attention by its felicity of thought, and produced convic- 
tion by the irresistible logic of his conclusions. He was the master 
of a rich and copious vocabulary. His diction arrested the attention 
of all cultivated minds, and his nice and exact distinctions and dis- 
criminations excited a pleasurable surprise. His exegesis was clear, his 
analysis complete, his arguments forcible and convincing, his applica- 
tion pungent ; and from exordium to peroration he showed himself a 
master in the construction of a sermon. 

Bishop Doggett was pre-eminently an extemporaneous speaker. 
Not in the sense of speaking without patient and painstaking prepara- 
tion. He was a diligent and untiring student. He used his pen in 
preparing his sermons, but rarely did more than write out the leading 
thoughts, with a careful statement of his propositions. In the delivery 
of his sermons there was no effort at a memoriter reproduction of his 
manuscript. His mind was left open to the suggestions springing out 
of the discussion, and arising from the occasion ; and hence it is that 
the finest and most effective portions of his discourses are never found 
in his written preparations. 

In a high sense Bishop Doggett was a man of one book. The 
Holy Scriptures engaged his almost undivided study and attention. 
He had a familiarity with the sacred text that is rarely equaled. His 
library was large and selected with great care, and he kept fully abreast 
with tlie advanced and ever-advancing thought and criticism of the age. 
His acquaintance with theological learning and literature was wide and 
varied. Hence he was always fresh in the pulpit, "bringing out of 
his treasury things new and old," never growing stale by repetition, 
nor dull and tiresome by reason of his dealing in mere platitudes and 
delivering threadbare old sermons. No minister had a more pleasing 
variety in his regular ministrations than Bishop Doggett. Not that 
he had any fancy or fondness for novelties, as such, nor that he even 
tolerated sensationalism in the pulpit ; but that he was opulent in his 
stores of well-digested thought on all the great cardinal doctrines of 



616 • Methodist Bishops. 

Christianitj, and possessed the happy facility of presenting even hack- 
neyed subjects in a new and engaging hght, by throwing them into 
new combinations with correlated doctrines, and investing them in a 
drapery that gave them all the witchery and charm of novelty. 

Doctrinally the Bishop was an Arminian in theology, after the 
Wesleyan pattern and the standards of his Clmrch. He preached 
what he believed, and his trumpet gave no uncertain sound ; but he 
never carried his polemics into the arena of sectarian controversy. 
The proper and unqualihed divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ ; the all- 
sufficient atonement made by his sufferings and sacrificial death for 
the sins of the whole world ; the mediatorial reign of the Eedeemer, 
and everlasting retribution and reward after death, were favorite topics 
with him in the pulpit. On his dying bed he said, " Proclaim it that 
I die believing in the doctrines of my Church as taught by our founder, 
and by our standard writers. The doctrines," said he, " which I have 
so long preached to others, are my solace and comfort upon my sick 
bed, and in view of death." 

Bishop Doggett has left no literary monument behind him in the 
form of a hook — the product of his facile pen. His " Review " arti- 
cles, if collected, collated, and systematized, would form a volume of 
value. Selections from the great mass of his sermons, lectures, and 
public addresses are, at the time of this writing, going through the 
press. This volume will be followed by a second, made up of sermons, 
lectures, and addresses, including his last and greatest address on the 
"Progress of Methodism in the Nineteenth Century." This latter he 
delivered a number of times throughout the domain of Southern Meth- 
odism, from Virginia to California and from Maryland to Texas. 
This address was every-where heard with interest, profit, and pleasure, 
and elicited the highest commendations from Conference, people, and 
press, as a production of rare excellence and merit. 

As a r^ian Bishop Doggett was not understood and appreciated at 
his full value, except by those who w^ere admitted to his confidence, 
and to unreserved freedom of social intercourse with him. He was 
somewhat reticent, not to say positive^ taciturn, in mixed and pro- 
miscuous company. He was never a talkative man, and yet in the 
company of known friends he was free and easy in conversation, and 
entered with zest and relish into the innocent pleasantries of humor, 



David Seth Doggett. 617 

wit, and repartee. There were times, however, when he seemed lost 
in abstraction and in a sort of reverie, and when it reqnired the 
stimnhis of some parti cuhir topic in which he felt a lively personal 
interest to awake him to his surroundings, and to engage him in 
conversation. He was not demonstrative, even in his warmest friend- 
ships, but he was as true as steel in his attachment to one whom he 
knew to be worthy of his confidence. He had a keen and high sense 
of honor. Nothing could be tolerated by him that was perfidious, or 
even truculent and unmanly. All the noble virtues, as a whole, had 
assumed a crystallized form in Bishop Doggett, and each facet of the 
crystallization Avas sharply defined by clear-cut angles, and stood out 
alone and conspicuously bright, and yet each facet blended harmoni- 
ously into symmetrical combination with all the other facets, preserv- 
ing the unity and homogeneity of the whole, and constituting a many- 
sided jewel of peerless beauty and priceless value. 

His election to the ofiice of Bishop was somewhat of a surprise to 
himself. He entered on his work with not a little distrust of his own 
qualifications for the responsibilities and duties of the office. As a 
member of the General Conference in his Church, a position he had 
filled at each session from 1850 until his election to the Episcopacy in 
1866, he had never taken a very active part in the deliberations as a 
debater or leader. At more than one session he had been chairman 
of the Committee on Education, and had written reports that were 
characterized by great beauty and elegance of style, as well, also, as by 
their breadth of thought. His judgment was good, and he was always 
safe and judicious in counsel, but was, nevertheless, a little wary about 
committing himself at once to any doubtful measure. When once he 
reached the point of committal he was bold and fearless in his advo- 
cacy of the cause. Some small degree of apprehension was enter- 
tained by his friends and those who knew him best as to whetlier his 
administrative tact and ability would be equal to the demands and 
emergencies of his new position. But he had not been long in the 
episcopal chair as President of an Annual Conference, and in the cab- 
inet of presiding elders as the chief oflicial in making out the appoint- 
ments, ere he inspired confidence in his capabilities to meet all the 
requirements of his office. He soon became a favorite as a presiding 

officer, and became strongly intrenched in the affections of the whole 
36 



618 Methodist Bishops. 

Chiirch, commanding the respect and confidence of all with whom he 
was brought into association. His official administration passed each 
succeeding General Conference with approval. His escutcheon is 
untarnished, and he has gone to his honored grave wnth the affections 
of his colleagues clustering round him, and the benediction of the 
Church, which he served with unswerving fidelity, following him to 
his latest breath in life. In his episcopal visitations he traversed 
the length and breadth of Southern Methodism ; and whether in Yir- 
ginia or Oregon, in Kansas or Texas, in Missouri or Georgia, he bound 
his Church, ministry and laity, to him as '' with hooks of steel." 

Bishop Doggett was the friend and patron of education. He was 
for niany years a trustee of Bandolph Macon College — an institution 
whose charter bears an earlier date than any other Methodist college 
IN'orth or South. He was always ready to respond to invitations to 
deliver baccalaureate sermons and commencement addresses, and 
some of the best productions of his pen are to be found in this line 
of service. 

For many years Bishop Doggett was an active member of the 
Board of Managers of the Yirginia Bible Society, organized in 1814-, 
two years before the American Bible Society — and at the time of his 
death he was its president. He was deeply interested in the work of 
Bible distribution. Some of the very best addresses and discourses 
delivered by him were in the interest and advocacy of the Bible 
cause. At Bible society anniversaries, and on the adoption of the 
reports of conmiittees on the Bible cause at Annual Conferences, 
as also at special meetings called for the purpose of raising money 
to aid in the circulation of the Holy Scriptures, " without note or 
comment,'' the Bishop was a ready and willing respondent to the call 
for a speech. Some of the most felicitous efforts of his life, as a 
public speaker, w^ere made on such occasions ; and on his death-bed 
he spoke of his devotion to the Bible cause, and said that he esteemed 
it an honor to represent his denomination in this de|)artment of Chris- 
tian activity, as the President of the Yirginia Bible Society. 

The Bishop was a pronounced and decided Methodist in all his 
convictions and preferences, and yet he was a man of the largest 
Christian charity. In the city of his long residence — Richmond, Ya. — 
he was a favorite with all Christian denominations, and often supplied 



David Setii Doggett. 619 

their pulpits, on special call, to the edification and delight of the 
congregations. 

There was no man in the Southern Methodist Chnrch, occupying 
a high and influential ^^osition, tliat was more deeply interested in 
Christian fraternity as between the North and South, than Bishop 
Doggett. He favored nothing that involved a compromise of any 
vital principle ; and yet he advocated charitable constructions and lib- 
eial concessions, and earnestly desired to keep the " unity of the 
Spirit in tlie bond of peace." He was the friend and supporter of 
all suitable measures to inaugurate and maintain the interchange of 
fraternal messengers between the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
and the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. Person- 
ally, he visited the Round Lake Camp-meeting, and other like occa- 
sions, and showed his faith by his works. He was the advocate of the 
Ecumenical Council, and lent his influence to the furtherance of 
all proper and legitimate plans and schemes looking to a closer and 
more eflicient unification of Methodism in the world. How^ever 
earnest he may have been at any time in defense of the steps taken 
which resulted in the independent organization of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South, as a co-ordinate sister of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, enjoying a common heritage, and invested with the 
same immunities, he never uttered an uncharitable expression, or per- 
formed a single act, that was not in consonance and harmony with the 
highest demands of Christian charity. 

What we have said in the foregoing part of this article relates 
more especially to Bishop Doggett as a man, a preacher, a Church 
ofiicial, and a public character. But it is as a Christian that the Bishop 
rises in the majesty and grandeur of his noble and well-spent life to 
our backw^ard gaze and contemplation. He was, by pre-eminence, a 
Christian. Rarely has there been a more beautiful and perfect embodi- 
ment of all the Christian graces and virtues that enter into the life 
and character of the highest style of the godly saint, than was exem- 
plified in the daily walk and conversation of the subject of this sketch. 
He was consciously, experimentally, converted to God in spiritual 
regeneration wdiile he was yet a youth. His talents were consecrated 
to God when he entered the ministry. He devoted himself with 
ceaseless and untiring energy to the best and most eflective prepara- 



620 Methodist Bishops. 

tion for preaching the Gospel. He was pure in sentiment, chaste in 
language, circnmspect in deportment, and blameless in life. He pre- 
served an unblemished record, unimpeached and unimpeachable in all 
the relations of life — domestic, social, public, and official — from his 
boyhood till threescore and ten, and died, leaving a name and memory 
behind him that is fragrant with the precious odors of the " Lily of 
the Yalley," and the perfume distilled by the leaves and fruitage of 
that Tree Avhicli is for " the healino^ of the nations." On his death- 
bed he said, '' I claim to have lived above reproach as a minister of 
the Gospel." This was no idle vaunting. Xo man ever sustained a 
more irreproachable character. 

Bishop Doggett married Miss Gwathney in 1834, with whom he 
lived in holy wedlock for the space of more than forty-six years, 
and when he died he left her a. widow with five living children — 
three sons and two daughters — all of whom have arrived at the state 
of manhood and womanhood. He had provided for them a compe- 
tency, and left his estate free from any embarrassments. In the 
domestic relations of life he had suifered terrifically distressing and 
painful bereavements. Two of his children, sweet little girls, by a 
strange coincidence were burned to death by having their clothes 
caught in flames. This occurred with an interval of several years 
between the two accidents : the first, while he was Professor in Kan- 
dolph Macon College, the latter, during his later residence in the city 
of Eichmond. At a still later period he lost, by death, a grown 
daughter in the beauty and strength of early womanhood. She was 
bright, gifted, and versatile ; handsome in person and sprightly in 
intellect. These bereavements lacerated his heart, and ground him as 
between the upper and nether mill-stones, and yet he bowed submis- 
sively to God's chastening hand, and said, " The Lord gave, and the 
Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the Lord." 

It is very natural for the reader to inquire, "How did Bishop 
Doggett die ? " We answer, Grandly, sublimely. To this point we 
shall, therefore, devote the remainder of this fragmentary sketch. 

Bishop Doggett had been prostrated several times during the later 
years of his life with attacks of illness supposed to have been occa- 
sioned by impaired digestion. Just one year before his death he was 
extremely ill for several weeks with one of these attacks, and serious 



David Setii Doggett. G21 

apprehensions were entertained that he would not recover ; hut he did 
so far regain his strength as to go out on his tour of episcopal visita- 
tions to the several Conferences assigned to him in the distribution of 
the episcopal work for the year. Having performed his work he 
returned home about the first of June, 1880, in improved health. 
Here he spent the remainder of the summer with his family, and had 
completed all his arrangements to leave for his fall and early winter 
Conferences in Colorado, Montana, and on the Pacific coast. A few 
days before his anticipated departure he was stricken down with an 
attack similar to the one from which he suffered the previous year. 
At first he hoped it would be of short duration, and that, if he 
failed to reach his Conference at Pueblo, Colorado, he would overtake 
his work in Montana, and proceed with his round of Conferences in 
Oregon and California. In this he was disappointed, and it cost 
him a painful struggle. He was not, at first, confined to his bed, but 
was unable to go out of his house, or even to keep up his correspond- 
ence. This was about the middle of August. 

Living, as I then did, in Pichmond, and being on terms of great 
intimacy with him, I was daily advised of his condition. On Monday, 
August 16th, I called in company with two other ministers of the city 
to see him. We found him lying on his sofa, and looking weak and 
faint. He seemed to be very much depressed in his feelings. We 
were hardly prepared to find him taking such, a desponding view of 
his condition. Speaking of his disappointment in not being able to 
leave for his Conferences he said, '^ I am praying, and trying to rally 
to my work, but I cannot see how it will go with me. My work may 
be done," he said thoughtfully ; and added, '' but I cannot exactly see 
how it will be." He then said, " When I was sick a year ago I did 
not then feel that my work was done ; but I cannot say so now." 
After a pause he went on to say, " I have dismissed all solicitude as 
to the Pacific Coast Conferences. I have done all I could to get ready 
to go, but God has ordered it otherwise, as it appears to me. His will 
be done. I am content." He then observed that he was comfortable 
religiously ; and that on the day before (Sunday) he had a pleasant 
and delightful day. He asked us all to pray for him that God might 
order all things for the best. At his request I led in prayer. He 
was very devotional. 



622 Methodist Bishops. 

Not till tlie Friday following did I have an opportunity of con- 
versing with him again. He seemed something better, but he con- 
versed pretty much in the same strain as in the previous interview. 
He said he was perfectly resigned to God's will. Said he, " I cannot 
go to my Conferences ; God knows best. My work may be done. I 
cannot see my way clear in that direction. I am content ; his will be . 
done." At longer or shorter intervals I saw the Bishop, and con- 
versed with him. He was often suffering with nausea, and could not 
see company or converse with any one. Sometimes, for a day or two, 
he seemed to be something better; sometimes he was much worse. 
In an interview about the first of September I found him greatly 
changed in appearance. He said : 

'' I am a very sick man." 

" What can I do for you, Bishop ? " I inquired. 

He responded, '*' Pray for me. I thought I would request you to 
call the elders of the Church together, and to pray for me, that God 
may help me to be submissive, meek, and patient ; but," said he, " do 
as you think best." 

After a few other sentences, he added : " And now let God be glo- 
rified and praised, and his will be done." 

He did not speak hopefully of his recovery. He was not despond- 
ent or gloomy ; on the contrary, he was as cheerful as his condition, 
suffering as he did, would allow him to be. His trust in God was 
child-like. There was no decided change in the Bishop's condition 
one way or another for several weeks. When in a condition to see 
his brethren in the ministry they were admitted to his bedside, and 
his conversations were always of the most cheerful and delightful 
character as to his own religious state and his prospects beyond the 
grave. Many of these conversations were preserved, but they would 
occupy a disproportionate amount of sj)ace in this sketch if recorded 
in detail. 

Passing over other visits, I saw him September 24th. His condi- 
tion was thought to be extremely critical. He was glad to see me, and 
after some endearing expressions of friendship, and a reference to the 
brotherly intimacy existing between us for so many years, he said, " I 
have just been talking with my family, and a precious. talk it has been." 
Then turning more directly to me, he said, " Hitherto the Lord hath 



David Seth Doggett. 623 

helped me, and let his name be praised forever ! " After a moment's 
l^ause, I asked him what he thought of his own condition, and of his 
prospects of recovery. He replied very promptly, " I have never 
been hopeful of recovery from this attack since I have been sick ; 
but," he continued, " I have no solicitude whatever about its issue. I 
am at peace." He then added after a little pause, " As I get near the 
gates of the city the prospect is grand. The idea," said he, '' that I 
shall pass over and land on the eternal shore is unspeakably sublime ; 
and all through Jesus Christ, my Lord." He then added with very 
decided emphasis, " Yes, through Jesus Christ, my Lord. I believe 
in Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God — that," said he, in a sort of 
23arenthesis, " is my doctrine — the eternal Son of God, who loved me 
and gave himself for me." 

In this conversation I said to him that his colleagues in the Epis- 
copacy were all anxious about his condition, and had written me kind 
and tender letters of inquiry, and sent messages of love and sympathy 
to him ; and asked if he had any messages for them in return ? He 
responded, " Give them all my unfeigned love, and tell them that I 
love them all, and that if I see them no more on earth, I hope and 
expect to meet them all on the eternal shore." He then consigned 
his manuscripts to my charge, and said that his library would remain 
in his family, and would be free to his brethren in the ministry to use 
at pleasure. 

During the interview now under notice, the Eev. W. E. Judkins, 
one of the Methodist pastors in the city, came into the room. To 
him the Bishop said, in reply to an inquiry as to his condition, " I have 
had peace, gospel j)eace, uninterruptedly, ever since I have been on 
this bed of affliction." While we were still listening to the Bishop 
as he reviewed his life, giving us interesting reminiscences of his min- 
istry as his strength would permit, the Bev. Charles H. Bead, D.D., 
pastor of the Grace-street Bresbyterian Church, in the city, came into 
the room ; and without taking a seat, knelt by the bedside. The 
Bishop expressed great gratification on seeing him. Dr. Bead com- 
menced by saying that he had a message of sympathy from the Board 
of Managers of the Virginia Bible Society to him. The Bishop inter- 
posed by saying, " Let me say a word before you deliver your mes- 
sage." He then remarked, in substance, what has before been stated, 



624 Methodist Bishops. 

that he felt it an honor to be President of the Society ; and that while 
he had been able to do but little in furtherance of its objects, he still 
felt a deep and abiding interest in its fortunes. Dr. Read then deliv- 
ered the message from the Board, which had just held a meeting. 
The conversation then turned on the subject which most occupied the 
Bishop's mind. He spoke of what he denominated his sweet enjoy- 
ment of the blessing of God upon his soul, and then said, " The blood 
of Jesus Christ is on me ; that is my platform." Dr. Head signified 
his acceptance of it, when the Bishop replied, " We differ doctrinally 
on some minor points of theology, but we agree in this." Dr. Read 
remarked, " The difference is just wide enough to give full play to 
Christian charity." It would occupy too much space to give a recital 
of all that took place in this interview, which the Bishop thought 
would be his last, as, in fact, it was the last of any extended length. 
The Bishop said to Dr. Read, who was still kneeling at his bedside, 
" Doctor, pray us a short prayer." We all, at his request, knelt around 
his bed, and Dr. Read led in prayer ; and as we arose from our knees 
the Bishop extended his hands and pronounced the benediction with 
impressive solemnity, as if he were dismissing the great congregation, 
and we all silently left the room. 

Rarely has there been in the history of the Church a more com- 
plete triumph over death and the grave than was evinced in the clos- 
ing scenes of Bishop Doggett's life. He was ready, waiting, and even 
anxious to die, and to be with Christ. On one occasion he said, " I 
have known life with its imperfections and frailties, and I am now 
anxious to be gone that I may know it in its perfection." To one 
of his brethren he said, " I have never been ambitious for office ; 
but I have been ambitious, so to speak, to preach the Gospel with the 
highest efficiency and success within the compass of my ability ; and 
O, how I have enjoyed it ! " 

The Bishop lingered till the night of October 27, but his con- 
dition was such that he but rarely received any company, or attempted 
any conversation. Like a weary, worn-out child he lay upon his bed, 
unable to turn himself— waiting for the Master's call. To his daughter, 
Mrs. Fitzgerald, who was near his bed on the afternoon of the day 
before he died, he said, " Pattie, unless God, my Father, were to take 
me up in his arms and nurse me, as a mother nurses her baby, I 



David Setii DoctGett. 625 

could not get well." Indeed, from tlie beginning of the attack lie 
never expected to recover. On Wednesday night, October 27, 1880, 
about nine o'clock, he was suddenly seized with a fatal turn, and in 
a few minutes his spirit had taken its mysterious flight into eternity. 

Ministei*s of all denominations in Richmond attended the Bishop's 
funeral services ; and a rej)resentative from each leading denomina- 
tion paid a glowing tribute to his memory. He was buried in Holly- 
wood Cemetery. Memorial meetings were held all over the counti-y 
embraced in Southern Methodism, sermons and addresses delivered, 
and resolutions adopted, all expressive of the high estimate in which 
the Bishop was held by the Church at whose altars he had ministered, 
and in whose councils he had occupied a position of |)rominence for so 
many years. 

The following letter, from Bishop Kobert Paine, D.D., senior 
Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, is given merely 
as a sample of the letters received from various sources, indicating 
the estimate in which Bishop Doggett was held, both by his col- 
leagues and by the Church at large : 

Aberdeen, Miss., August 28, 1880. 
Dear Doctor Edwards : Yours of the 24th inst. just received, inforjiiing 
me of the dangerous ilhiess of my dear colleague, Bishop Doggett. It startles 
and pains me inexpressibly. His death Would be felt by many thousands as a 
great calamity. Have we overworked him ? Have we been too proud of him ? 
I confess that, during many years of intimate association and uninterrupted 
friendship, he has been constantly growing on my confidence and love, until my 
admiration for his rare endowments as a preacher has been equaled by my high 
respect for him as a high-toned gentleman and devout Christian. I pray and trust 
that God may sj)are him to us ! We need him — do not see how we can do with- 
out him. Yet our divine Master knows it all. Do keep me advised. 

Your Brother, R. Paine. 



EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION. 



THIS body took its rise in the year ISOO, m the Eastern part 
of Pennsylvania. It was conij^osed of German-sj^eaking peo- 
ple, wlio had been formed into classes by the Rev. Jacob Albright, 
tlie story of whose life will explain the j^^anting and growth of his 
Clinrch. 

In course of time, as the work increased and laborers multiplied. 
Annual Conferences were held, and in 1816, sixteen years after the 
oro^anization of the Church, a General Conference was held in Union 
County, Pa., which consisted of all the elders in the ministry. Since 
1S13 a General Conference, composed of delegates elected from 
among their elders, has lield quadrennial sessions. Their Bishops are 
elected quadrennially. For the last forty-eight years the Association 
has struggled against fierce opposition, but their growth lias been 
rapid. They numbered, in 1879, 828 itinerant preachers, 540 local 
preachers, and 105,013 lay members. They have a publishing house, 
located in Cleveland, Ohio, where their Church periodicals and ail 
elaborate catalogue of books are printed in the German language. 




En§. By H & C.Koevoets.N:^. 



REY JACOB ALBRIGHT 



Jacob Albright. 



BY KEV. THEODORE L. FLOOD. 



THE dividing and subdividing of tlic Methodist Cliurcli from tlie 
day she was organized in tlie United States until the 2)resent, 
illustrates the restlessness of the human mind, besides sliowing how 
many men there are in the Clmrch who think they were born to rule. 
Every departure from the original Methodist family has been made 
ostensibly in the interest of what the reformers thonght to be sound 
doctrine, or a revival of spiritual religion, a moral reform, or a better 
form of clmrch government. 

Jacob Albright came into the Methodist Clmrch because she 
preached the Gospel with a plainness and directness which satisfied 
his soul, and he went ont from her that he might nse the same Gos- 
pel and methods to awaken and save the Germans of Easterii Penn- 
sylvania. 

The pleasing story of his eventful life, wdiich is mostly translated 
from the German, gives the acconnt of his success in laying the 
foundation of what is, to-day, the most flourishing branch of inde- 
pendent Episcopal Methodism among the Germans of this country. 

John Albright, the father of Jacob, came from Germany in a 
year to us nidcnown, in the eighteenth centnry, and settled in Mont- 
gomery County, Pa., in a ^^lace then called Foxbury, about three miles 
south east from Pottstown. Here Jaco'b was born on the first day of 
May, 1759, of poor parents, in a honse which, having been simply 
and strongly built, is still standing. His parents being devoted mem- 
bers of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Jacob received baptism in 
his infancy at the hands of a Lutheran minister. In his boyhood he 
learned the trade of brick and tile makiiifi:. He was an industrious 
and skillful workman, and in very early life he accumulated con- 
siderable j^roperty. By his honest dealing he earned from his 
neighbors and customers the enviable title of " The Honest Brick- 
maker." Li 1TS5 he was married to Miss Catherine Cope, and soon 



630 Methodist Bishops. 

after moved to Lancaster County, Pa. From tins union tliej had 
nine children, of whom only three, two sons and one daughter, out- 
lived him. 

His education was limited. The schools of his time were few 
and imperfectly adapted to the education of young men for profes- 
sional life ; accordingly, Mr. Albright's accomplishments in scholar- 
ship were not numerous or j^rofound. It was in a private school that 
he learned to read and write and to reckon in the German language. 
In addition to the Pennsylvania Dutch, spoken all around him, he 
mastered high German, and sufficient English to enable him, on 
occasion, to preach fluently in either tongue. His library was made 
up of the hymn book. Catechism, and a Bible Commentary, which 
he prized very highly. 

In his boyhood he was instructed in the Catechism and rules of 
the Church, thoroughly indoctrinated, and then he was confirmed and 
admitted to membership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 
Douglass Township, Montgomery County. 

At this time the German Church in Eastern Pennsylvania was in 
a deplorable condition ; nothing was heard among them of true con- 
versions, of prayer-meetings, Bible meetings, Sunday-schools, or the 
conviction of sin. The people held " the form of godliness," but 
denied the power ; " the salt had lost its savor." Of this j^eriod of his 
life Mr. Albright says : "I walked thoughtlessly in the ways of the 
world, was gay with the gay, thought little on the oljject of life, 
esteemed not the duty of men, still less that of Christians. I lived 
as though this life, a span long, would last forever, and committed 
many sins for which God has threatened severe punishment." Church 
membership was by him, as by others, used as a license for sinning, 
and instead of growing better he grew worse. Yet his conscience 
troubled him, and he made resolution after resolution to reform, but 
did not put them into immediate effect. 

In 1790 his family was visited with sickness and death. He 
passed through deep waters. His heart was made sore by the blows 
of Providence. He looked upon the death of some of his children 
as a sign of God's displeasure. He became humble and teachable, 
so that the preaching of the Be v. Anthony Hentz, a Lutheran minis- 
ter, at the burial of his children, awakened him, and he forthwith 



Jacob Albright. 631 

determined to seek tlie Lord. The t^vo-cdgcd sword cut deep. The 
voice of conscience disturbed the quiet of his souL lie wrote with 
his own pen, " O if I only liad niy life to live over again, how difler- 
ently I would act ! A sense of my unworthiness, augmented by por- 
tions of the Catechism I could recall, almost drove me to despair; 
but I was led to pray. I fell upon my knees : bitter tears of peni- 
tence flowed over my cheeks, and a long, burning, fervent prayer for 
grace and the forgiveness of my sins rose to tlie throne of the Most 
High." The conflict was severe, and the trial of his soul great. lie 
sought counsel of men, but found little help until the Lord brought 
to him a plain, simple man, who was to do for him what Ananias did 
for Saul, and the old brother in the cloister at Erfurt did for Martin 
Luther. Of this, Bishop John Seybert writes ; " Albright commenced 
to weep, fast, and pray. After he had sought counsel and help of God 
and man for a long time, a man named Adam Hiegel visited him, a 
warm-hearted, zealous minister, who preached whenever the people 
would hear him. He undertook the cause of Mr. Albright. He 
worked and prayed with him until he obtained the forgiveness of 
sins and a hope of eternal life. This happened in Kiegel's house. 
Mr. Albright w^as so overcome with heavenly joy and blessing that 
he hardly knew how to praise and glorify God." 

This declaration of Bishoj) Seybert, who was not only Mr. Al- 
bright's contemporary, but was also born in the neighborhood where 
the Bishop was, should forever set aside the unfounded rej)ort that 
Albright was converted in a Methodist meeting at Mr. Butterfield's, 
or that he was brought to the Lord through the efforts of the United 
Brethren. 

Mr. Albright writes that he was filled ^vith joy, that comfort and 
consolation filled his breast, the witness of the Spirit and an inde- 
scribable joy w^ere given him, so that his prayers were mingled with 
tears and thanksgiving. His feet out of the clay, a new song in his 
mouth, he strongly wished that his neighbors might see, and come and 
fear the same God. He immediately stirred up an old Baptist preacher 
(a non-possessor) by telling him, in the language that then obtained, 
" You must be converted or you will go to hell." We are not told 
whether it produced a permanent change in the preacher or not. 

Mr. Albright was full of zeal and affection for his Master, and 



632 Methodist Bishops. 

saw at once the necessity of joining tlie Clinrcli. But as in the 
Lntlieran Church he found himself mocked and persecuted by those 
who hved ungodly, he Avas under the necessity of seeking elsewhere 
a church home and fellowshi]^. At first he united with several others 
to form a kind of independent society, which was known under vari- 
ous names. This society was without discipline ; each member stood 
for himself : but all Avere united in the Christian sjjirit. Later they 
learned that without other bonds they could not grow and prosper ; 
they then took upon themselves the name they still bear, '' United 
Brethren in Christ." 

Mr. Albright was dissatisfied witli the lack of order. Among 
the different societies of his acquaintance, none ajDpeared more to his 
taste than the Methodist : their Church services, doctrines, and Church 
government attracted his attention, and, in order to understand the 
Methodist Church fully, he studied diligently the English language, 
acquainted himself thoroughly with the Discipline, and rigidly judged 
himself by it. At this time the Methodists, few in number, were a 
despised and persecuted people. To Mr. Albright this mattered not ; 
they preached Christ from their pulpits and in their lives, and ac- 
cordingly he joined the Methodist Church, and became a member of 
Isaac Davies' class, which met at the leader's house for their class and 
prayer-meetings. Here he felt at home, and when afterward God led 
him into another field of labor, the experience here acquired was full 
of profit. He was attentive to the means of grace, passing through 
severe conflicts, and receivino; streno;th from his victories. Amono; 
the Methodists he learned of Christian perfection, as taught by Mr. 
AVeslev and others. Earnestlv desirinsr, he souo-ht for this new ex- 
perience with his whole heart. Xor did he seek in vain, as his after 
testimony proves. Before setting out as a traveling preacher he says : 
'"In possession of stich grace, the gift of God. thoroughly equipped 
with the strength of his righteousness and holiness, sealed by his 
Spirit, and in love, faith and hope I addressed myself to the journey.'' 

From the Methodists he received a license to exhort, a privilege 
he used faithftilly, and soon developed his native talent for sjieaking. 
He thought not of becoming a minister of tlie Gospel, but his soul 
was stirred for the condition of his countrymen, and he daily prayed 
for them. Soon the voice was heard speaking to him, '• Gu, work 



Jacob Albkigiit. 633 

in my vineyard, and announce to my children the glad tidings of the 
Gospel. Trust in my fatherly love, that all those who will hear and 
believe may have part in my salvation." 

Mr. Albright had never thought of such a call to such a work. 
Doubts arose, but the call was too distinct to be mistaken. He was 
uneducated, feeble in body, and deemed himself incapable ; hence, he 
earnestly prayed that God would send some one more competent than 
himself. But he had no rest day or night while he thus hesitated. At 
one time he would be almost entranced by visions of the glory that 
awaited him if he entered upon this course of life and faithfully per- 
formed its duties ; at another his heart failed him as he thought of his 
want of ability for the work. But he finally^ decided to obey the call 
and serve God as best he could. Xot at once, however, for one hin- 
dering cause after another presented itself to his eyes, until he was 
chastised, as he thought, by a severe sickness. His nerves were 
attacked with unceasing pain, and his limbs w^ere tormented with 
almost unendurable suffering ; but greater than either was the mental 
anguish to which he was subjected. He recognized the hand of God, 
and turned humbly to him, promising that if he w^ere raised up he 
would preacb anywhere and begin iinmediately . Peace of mind ensued 
on this determination, and healing of body followed speedily. He was 
restored, and without further delay he committed himself to God's 
care, saying, " Here am I, send me." He sought preparation for his 
work in prayer and searching the Scriptures, and consecrating his 
body, " that no passion, covetousness, or love of ease, might hinder his 
course." He fasted sometimes for a whole week, endeavoring to 
bring his body into subjection, that Christ might dwell in his heart 
richly ; and God blessed him in these endeavors, so that he was enabled 
to be temperate in all things, to love God with all his heart, and his 
neighbor as himself. But, having no adviser, he went almost too 
far in these practices, to the injury of his health. While Paul kept 
his body under, he himself gives directions to us to preserve the 
temple of the living God. 

It seemed necessary to Mr. Albright that his own heart and life 
should be pure, because he now felt that there was set before him the 
task of trying to save the Germans. He evidently saw the hand of 
God pointing him toward them as the field he must occupy ; his 



634 Methodist Bishops. 

thoughts were of them, and his convictions moved him that way, and 
the rich experience in grace he obtained from God among the Meth- 
odists opened his ejes to see, more clearly than ever, the need of a 
spiritual ministry to teach the Germans the word of God. 

At this time godlj living in the German Church was an almost 
unknown thing ; many preachers and office-holders were living in open 
sin, and only here and there was there an appearance of Christianity. 
The rules of Church order were trampled under foot, and the wild 
swine laid waste the vineyard of the Lord in a frightful manner. It is 
true, there were a few who had not defiled their garments, but they 
were conspicuous among the multitude who lived in sin. 

Conversion was a strange word, and conviction unknown. Cock- 
fights, horse-races, bowling-alleys, and dog and bear fights were much 
more numerously attended than God's house. Every- where darkness 
covered the land. Open sins, as cursing, swearing. Sabbath-breaking, 
drunkenness, etc., were freely indulged in. The extent of their 
religion was to be baptized, confirmed, and occasionally to receive the 
Lord's Supper. The German Church and people in America needed 
a thorough awakening and converting, and to this work God called a 
simple, practical man, and furnished him for his work by giving him 
a deep, heart-felt experience, and sending him forth to preach from 
the heart to the heart. 

Mr. Albright mounted his horse as a Methodist itinerant, and went 
to the field ^\^th his preparation not of men, but of God. It was 
October, 1Y96, when he started. He . traversed a great part of Penn- 
sylvania and Yirginia, preaching in churches, school-houses, and private 
dwellings, and meeting with great success, many souls being awakened 
and converted. At Schiiferstown, Pa., a newly built church was to be 
consecrated. Mr. Albright went thither, but so large a crowd collected 
that he entered a neighboring market-house, and from a pile of boards 
so effectually preached the word that many were cut to the heart. 
Some roughs cried out, " The man is out of his liead," and proceeded 
to abuse him. He only escaped by the aid of a muscular man defend- 
ing himx, and by taking refuge in a house. Having preached with 
great power at Upper Hanover, Montgomery County, Pa., he was 
driven out by the persecution Avhicli the arch-enemy excited. Satan 
raged as he saw his kingdom of darkness invaded, and he instigated 



Jacob Albright. 635 

tlie ease-loving ministers to Wcarn their people to beware of him who 
came to them " in sheep's clothing, but inwardly was a ravening wolf." 
Kevertheless, Mr. Albright continued on his way, preaching sometimes 
in the street, crying aloud, and sparing not ; forming classes and 
appointing leaders wherever he could, and every-where faithfully 
warning the people to flee the wrath to come. Sometimes, under his 
jDOwerful preaching, sinners would fall down unconscious, and many 
called aloud upon God to save them. To inquirers he would give 
such advice as this : " You must pray diligently, humble yourself, take 
the cross of Christ upon you, and believe with all your heart, and you 
will soon find the grace of God." 

It was by no means Mr. Albright's intention to found a Church of 
another name, he merely sought to do God's will and save souls ; but in 
1800 he undertook to organize those converted under him into regular 
classes, after the fashion of Mr. Wesley's societies. The first three 
societies were established in Bucks, Herts, and Northampton Counties, 
respectively, and others soon followed. These were organized as 
Methodist class-meetings under the Discipline of the Church. It does 
not appear that Mr. Albright exercised any higher authority than a 
local preacher in the Methodist Church, or that he ever became a mem- 
ber of an Annual Conference ; but he had power to organize classes, 
and to preach the word, as Mr, Wesley had done before him, and this 
power he used every-where he went. Once he came to preach at a 
place where a " frolic " was being held at the inn. He mounted a 
millstone used as a mounting-block, and commenced to preach. Soon 
he had broken up. the " frolic," which so enraged the innkeeper that 
he, in turn, brought out his whip and tried to break up the meeting, 
but failed in his attempt. 

At another time, when preaching to about a thousand people, he 
had such influence over them that one said, " See his face, he looks 
lil^e an angel." Satan's minions looked upon him very differently. 
One of them said, " If I only had powder that would not make a noise, 
I'd shoot him down." 

He astonished his host sometimes by declining to drink whisky, then 
the universal drink. He would say, when invited to drink : " I love 
people. I do not drink ; I do not need it ; can do well without it ; 
but you must not take any offense at me for declining." 
37 



636 Methodist Bishops. 

On November 3, 1803, a council of tlie different societies he liad 
organized met. Tliis council constituted Mr. Albriglit a genuine 
evangelical preacher, and ordained him their teacher. Thev also 
adopted the Old and the Isew Testaments as the ]-ule of their faith 
and livino:. During: the same session, J. Walter and A. L. J. Albrecht 
were also ordained preachers and elders by laying on of hands. 

The year 1804 is a gap in Mr. Albright's history that cannot be 
filled out. 

In 1805 Mr. Albright was at a place in Center County, Pa. He 
received permission to preach in the house of Mr. Bachman. In the 
meantime, Christopher Spangler, from Brush Valley, came to Mr. 
Bachman's house. Mr. Bachman said to him, '' Listen, Spangler, there 
has come a man at this time to my house to preach." Spangler replied, 
"Tell him to come to my house, too, and preach." When Albright 
went, he entered with this speech, " You have a beautiful house, but 
if you were only converted, it would be much more beautiful." As a 
result of similar plain talk, Mr. Spangler repented and soon found 
peace in Christ, and in his old age was accustomed to speak with great 
animation of Mr. Albright as his spiritual father. 

In 1807 Mr. Albright had been eleven years in the ministry. 
The results were several hundred conversions, four traveling preachers, 
three stationed preachers, and twenty class-leaders and exhorters. It 
was now necessary to hold a regular Conference. The first was held 
in Lebanon County, Pa., in 1807. All the preachers and leaders, 
twenty-seven in number, were present. At this Conference the Rev. 
Jacob Albright was elected Bishop, G. Miller was made an elder, and 
J. Dreisbach and Jacob Prey received as preachers on trial. It was 
also determined that Bishop Albright should draw up articles of faith 
and Church rules if his health should permit. The work Avas too 
severe for the now sickly man. It was a disappointment to all his 
friends to even think that in a few months his race would be i-un. ,, 

By the documents of this Conference it is evident that, as yet, the 
newly organized society had no particular name. They called them- 
selves '' Our Society." At the second Conference, in 1809, they used 
the name "Albright People," but afterward changed it to "Evangel- 
ical Association." 

For a time the first Conference called itself " The newlv formed 



Jacob Albright. 63T 

Metliodist Conference," because tliey accepted the polity of the Meth- 
odist Church, their doctrines and customs of worship, as Bishop Al- 
bright had introduced them among his people wherever he preached. 
The fact is, that for seven years this people were a part of the Meth- 
odist Church, from 1800 till 1807. AVithout doubt. Bishop Albriglit 
was embarrassed because his preachers and people were Germans, and 
the Englisli-speaking Methodists were equally embarrassed with the 
question of organic unity, when they thought of receiving them as a 
part of the Metliodist family. This is the only obstacle that appeared 
to be in the way of Bishop Albright leading his followers into the 
Methodist Church. It was formidable enough to cause him to consent 
to the adoption of a new name, after a trial of seven years, outside of 
any Church organization. If the trial had come in later years, when 
the Methodist Episcopal Church organized German Conferences, and 
received German preachers, and published a German literature, we 
seriously doubt if there would be such a religious organization in exist- 
ence as the '' Evangelical Association." 

From the time of the Conference in 1807, Bishop Albright's health 
continued to fail, yet he w^orked constantly, and as much as possible, 
until he went to his rest. 

His career as a Bishop w^as short. He lived only one year after his 
election, to serve the struggling societies that looked up to him as 
children to a father. His friends believed that if he had lived and been 
favored with physical health, he w^ould have made a substantial and 
brilliant record as a Bishop, but Providence ordered it differently, and 
he was cut off in the midst of his years. 

Bishop Albright was endowed with a sound mind and a clear 
understanding. His habit of mind was reflective, and he was favored 
with a good share of mother wit, which in later years he used with 
telling effect upon his persecutors. 

In person he w^as of more than middle height; his frame was closely 
and w^ell built, with a clear, high forehead ; blue, penetrating eyes ; 
slightly arched nose ; a well proportioned mouth and chin ; his face 
was small, but long for its width ; his hair was black, and he wore it 
long; liis temperament was sanguine, and his movements liv^ely and 
always graceful. He was one of nature's orators, though his modesty 
caused him to disclaim all pretensions to the gift. His words often 



638 Methodist Bishops. 

flowed majestically, and with power, at once astonishing and instruct- 
ing his congregation. 

On one occasion, in 1808, while preaching at a private house in 
Linglestown, Dauphin County, Pa., he was so direct in his remarks 
tliat toward the close of the sermon one stood up, remarking aloud, 
" That preaching is too cutting." Another arose and said, " Do you 
mean me ? You've been preaching about me." " Yes, my friend," 
said the Bisho}), " if I struck you, I meant you." 

Dm'ing one of his last meetings he gave his fellow-laborers this 
memorable advice, " In all things that you do, or think of doing, let it 
be your aim to promote God's glory, and extend the work of his grace, 
and to lift it up as much in your own hearts as among your brethren 
and sisters ; and may you be diligent workers in the way God has 
indicated to yon, and to which he will add his blessing." 

His health now visibly failed, and he betook himself to his home- 
ward journey to die. His sickness had been brought on by too great 
exertion. When he arrived at Muehlbach (now" Kleinfeltersville, 
Lebanon County) he could go no farther. He went to Mr. George 
Becker's house and said, " Have you my bed ready ? I have come to 
die ! " He lay down, and never rose again. 

He prayed for aid to triumph in the last hour. Victory came, and 
he called upon the by-standers to help him praise God. They felt 
God's presence and power making that chamber an ante-room of 
heaven. Thus the good man lay for a few days, then he took an 
affectionate leave 6f all, and gently sank to his rest. This occurred 
on May 18, 1808, in his fiftieth year. His funeral took j^lace two 
days later, attended by a great crowd of people who were indebted to 
him for his labors as a servant of God. On his plain tombstone, beside 
tlie dates of birth and death, is the inscription, " Precious in the sight 
of the Lord is the death of his saints." Psa. cxvi, 15. 

The testimony of friends is, that as a preacher he was very friendly 
and full of love, yet wise and prudent with every body. He rose early, 
lived simply, and read much in the Bible. He came right from the 
place of secret prayer to the meeting, and God's presence was with 
him, and the people oft 

" Saw upon his face the flame 
Of love that from the heavens came." 




i 







u\ loiuriu r>L! I ten l!cb».'u$iahv 



John Seybert. 



BY liEV. C. W. CUSHING, D.D. 



THE subject of this sketch was born in Manheim, Lancaster Co., Pa., 
July 7, 1791. 

He was powerfully awakened at the age of fourteen, and the con- 
viction which seized upon him then never left him until he was con- 
verted, at nineteen years of age. ''The Spirit," he says, "moved so 
powerfully upon rae that I was overwhelmed, and became almost peni- 
tent. I sought and prayed for peace, yet my will was not subjected 
to the will ol God, and I obtained no comfort." In this condition he 
remained struggling for five years, until, under the influence of a 
sermon preached by Rev. Matthew Betz, he was led into the light. 
" There," he says, when past iifty years of age, " I got a stroke from 
the sword of the Spirit of God, and the hammer of the word, tlie 
effect of which I feel to-day, and which I hope will last throughout 
eternity." The Lord converted him while he was washing his face at 
the well in the morning. " There," says he, " the Lord converted me 
deejp into eternal lifeP This occurred in 1810. 

Yery soon after he joined the Evangelical Association, and about 
a year after, being recommended by his class. Rev. John Driesbach 
gave him an exhorter's license. After this he was class-leader in two 
classes, where he served his Master with great acceptance and useful- 
ness. It was not until after this that he speaks of feeling any special 
call to the work of the ministry, and when this conviction first came 
to him he felt his incompetency so keenly that he concealed his im- 
pressions entirely. The Lord, however, had made known the call to 
the Church as well as to him, so that in the year 1819, when nearly 
twenty-eight years of age, the officers of the Church, without his 
seeking, took him up and gave him license as a local preacher. On 
September 12, 1820, " I started as itinerant minister," he says. His 
great success in bringing souls to Christ fully convinced him that he 
had not mistaken his calling. His labors from this time until the close 
of his life were " more abundant." 



640 Methodist Bishops. 

For forty years, tlirongli tlie Northern States and Canada, lie con- 
tinued his travels, almost always with his horse and buggy, until many 
thousands were led to Christ by him, and many scores, if not hundreds, 
of young men, into the ministry. During these years, from 1820 to 
1860, he traveled about 175,000 miles, preached 9,850 times, made 
46,000 pastoral visits, led 6,000 prayer-meetings and 2,000 class-meet- 
ings, and visited about 10,000 sick persons. Surely these are labors 
before which the faint-hearted may tremble. 

At the General Conference of the Evangelical Association, held in 
Center County, Pa., in 1839, the Conference voted unanimously for 
him as Bishop ; and, says one of his biographers, " Such a humble, 
faithful, godly Bishop was he that he w^as re-elected every four years 
to this office, almost, if not quite, unanimously, and he remained 
Bishop, loved and respected by all, until the day of his death. In 
this high office he was willing to be the servant of all, and set a good 
example to all." 

Bishop Seybert was a clear and sound theologian, but his energies 
were given to the elucidation of the practical bearings of the great 
themes of the Gospel, rather than to their technical distinctions. He 
was thoroughly Wesleyan in his views. His defense of the doctrine 
of full salvation, or Christian holiness, was able, and, as it appeared 
in his sermons, was often overwhelming. He preached with great 
earnestness, and not unfrequently wdth very marked results. 

As a superintendent in the Church he was consistent and discreet. 
So far as we can learn, his administration was highly approved, and 
secured for him the highest esteem. He was pre-eminently a godly 
man, and his death was a fitting conclusion to a holy life, which for 
forty years had been crowded with labors in the service of Christ. To 
the last, he continued to hold up Christ to all who were around him. 
His last words were, " How fearful must death be to a wicked person I " 
Pausing here for a moment, he continued, " It begins below and comes 
upward through the body, and when it comes here [pointing to his 
heart] then man is at his end. Thus I shall fall asleep once." Saying 
this, he laid himself down, and his work was done. He slept, and 
passed through the open gate. It was on December 20, 1859, at the 
house of Mr. Parker, near Bellevue, Ohio. 




^='e-EY;-i5c:..-vocv_.e^5>«-i 



REV. JOSEPH LONG 



Joseph Long. 



BY REV. C. W. CUSHING, D.D. 



BISHOP JOSEPH LONG was born October 21, 1800, in Stras- 
burgh, York County, Pa., and died June 23, 1869, at the age of 
sixty-eight years, eight months, and two days. 

From such records as have been accessible, the time and place 
of his conversion could not be ascertained. He joined the traveling 
ministry at the eighteenth annual session of the Evangelical Associa- 
tion, held in ISTevv Berlin, Pa., June 3, 1822, when he was at the 
age of twenty-two years. His first appointment was Somerset Circuit, 
under the charge of Pev. J. Baumgartner. At this time there were 
only twenty-three itinerants in this branch of the Church. 

In 1823 he was appointed as preacher in charge on Berkley and 
Franklin Circuits. In 1824 he was ordained deacon, and appointed to 
Lancaster Circuit, Ohio, where he remained two years. He was 
ordained elder in 1826, and put in charge of Mansfield and Canton 
Circuits, with the Pev. F. Hoffman as associate. The Conference 
was divided at this session, and Mr. Long fell into what was known as 
the Western Conference. The first session of this Conference was 
held in Wayne County, Ohio, May 5, 1827, at which time he was 
appointed to Canton Circuit. During one half of this year he acted 
as Presiding Elder. In 1828 he was elected Presiding Elder of the 
Western Conference District, which relation he held until 1833, when 
he located. 

He was present as delegate at the fifth and sixth sessions of the 
General Conferences held in 1835 and 1839, a privilege to w^hich all 
elders were entitled, as no regular delegates were elected. In 1841 he 
returned to the traveling ministry, and was appointed to Harmony 
Circuit. At the General Conference of 1843, which met at Greens- 
burgh, Ohio, it was found that the work had grown so that it could 
no longer be done by one Bishop. So, while Kev. John Seybert was 
re-elected to the office of Bishop, the Kev. Joseph Long was elected 



644 Methodist Bishops. 

as liis associate In office. From tliis time Bishop Long was re-elected 
to this office at every General Conference until his death. , 

All who knew him represent him as a very zealous man, and 
unswerving in his fidelity. He had, naturally, a very strong constitu- 
tion, capable of enduring great labor ; but his untiring exertions so 
wore upon him, that for the last few years he was comparatively feeble, 
though he labored on incessantly, despite bodily indisposition. Fail- 
ing at length, he wrote to a friend, Mr. Orwig, only a few days before 
his death, saying he was conscious he was near death's door. But, " I 
can adopt as my own the cheering truth found in the fifth verse of 
the Thirty-first Psalm : ' Into thine hand I commit my spirit : thou hast 
redeemed me, O Lord God of truth. ' " 

Bishop Long was a representative man at a period when there was 
great progress in his own Church. He represented the men of an age 
that was past, and yet he kept so fully abreast of the times in wdiich 
he lived, that the young and progressive men looked to him as a rep- 
resentative man still. This, perhaps, was not attributable to intel- 
lectual superiority over other men of his time, so much as to his 
sympathy with the immediate surroundings, and his rigid honesty. 
Moreover, he was eminently unselfish — always ready to sacrifice for 
the Church. This was so manifest, that his examj^le was an inspira- 
tion to others who came under his influence. Says one writer : " His 
example and influence in this respect were almost the greatest loss 
which the Church sustained by his death." 

By those who knew him, Bishop Long is spoken of as a powerful 
preacher. His sermons were eminently scriptural, both in style and 
argument. On ordinary occasions he often seemed to fail to impress 
the people. But on special occasions, when all the latent energies of 
his great soul were stirred to their depth, " he would launch forth a 
torrent of irresistible eloquence, carrying every thing before him as by 
storm." He was a very plain j)reacher, " and went straight forward as 
a man does who believes heartily in the authority and veracity of his 
message, and delivered it as to men who were held to believe with the 
same implicitness." In the, death of Bishop Long the Church lost a 
leader highly respected, and one whose example was worthy of imita- 
tion. He died in great peace, leaving the legacy of an earnest Cliris- 
tian life with the Church. 



AFEICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



THE separation of this Cliurcli from the Methodist Episcopal Clnirch 
began in Philadelphia, in 1787, when an association of colored 
members was formed. A place of worship, separate from the whites, 
was dedicated for them bj Bishop Asbury, June 29, 1794, with Eich- 
ard Allen (who afterward became Bishop) as their pastor. The chief 
purpose of the separate organization was declared to be to obviate 
"- the inconveniences which had arisen from white people and people 
of color mixing together in public assemblies." The name of the 
church was called " Bethel." Allen was ordained by Bishop Asbury 
in 1799. This congregation remained associated with St. George's 
Methodist Episcopal Church until 1815, when, in consequence of new 
and varied difficulties, a convention of colored people was called, and 
held in Philadelphia, April 9, 1816. It was composed of five dele- 
gates from Philadelphia, seven from Baltimore, three from Attle- 
borough, and one from Wilmington, Del., and one from Salem, IS". J. 
Daniel Coker was elected Bishop, but resigned the next day in favor 
of Kichard Allen, who was elected in his stead. Of this Mr. Allen, 
Dr. Bangs, in his " History of the Methodist Episcopal Chui'ch," thus 
laudably speaks ; " By habits of industry and economy, though born 
a slave, in one of the Southern States, he had not only procured his 
freedom, but acquired considerable wealth, and, since he had exercised 
the office of a preacher and an elder, obtained great influence over his 
brethren in the Church." Bishop Allen was consecrated by prayer 
and the imposition of the hands of five colored elders, one of whom, 
Absalom Jones, was a priest of the Protestant Episcopal Church. 
The Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church (except that part 
relating to the Presiding Eldership) was adopted entire. The organ- 
ization embraced about three thousand members. 

In 1828 Rev. Mr. Brown was elected Bishop, and in 1836 Pev. 
E. Waters was elected. The early growth of the Church was slow ; 



646 Methodist Bishops 

but since the breaking out of the late civil war it lias been rapid, and 
the statistics of membership at the opening of the year 1882 reported 
a total of one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two itinerant minis- 
ters, nine thousand seven hundred and sixty local preachers, and three 
hundred and ninety-one thousand and forty-four lay members. This 
Church is, therefore, doing a good work, and its future would seem 
to be assured. 




REY RICHARD ALLEN, 



Richard Allen, 



BY BISHOP J. P 



THE subject of tliis sketch was born in Philadelphia, Pa., February 
li, 1760. His parents were the slaves of Benjamin Chew, of 
that city. They, with four of their children, including Pichard, were 
sold into the State of Delaware, to a man named Stokely. 

Mr. Allen was instrumental in the conversion of his master, who 
finally became convinced that it was wrong for him to hold slaves, and 
accordingly he proposed to Mr. Allen and his brother that they 
should purchase their time for £60 gold and silver, or $2,000 con- 
tinental money ; this they agreed to do. 

"When he left his master's house, Mr. Allen says (in a sketch of 
his life written by himself) that he knew not what to do, as he was 
unused to hard work ; but he was determined to have his freedom, 
and therefore he made persistent efforts to work, and not without 
success. After a few trials his hands became accustomed to hard 
work, and he sometimes sawed cord-wood, sometimes worked in 
brick-yards, and at other times drove a wagon. Much of his leisure 
time was spent in preaching, and he says that he enjoyed many 
happy seasons in meditation and prayer, while occupied with his 
work. After the Continental War ended, and peace was proclaimed, 
he traveled extensively, striving to preach the Gospel. He left his 
place of residence September 3, 1783. His lot was cast first in Wil- 
mington ; from there he went into New Jersey, and traveled, preach- 
ing the Gospel, until the spring of 1784. His labors in this State 
were very successful; he says: "My dear Lord was with me, and 
blessed my labors, and gave me souls for my hire." In 1784 he left 
'New Jersey and went into Pennsylvania. He stopped first in Kadnor 
township. Here he labored with much success, many being awakened 
and converted under his preaching. 

Up to this time he had performed his journeys from place to 
place on foot ; but as he was about leaving this place a kind friend 



650 Methodist Bishops. 

gave liim a horse, wliicli greatly facilitated liis labors as a minister of 
the Gospel. From this place he proceeded to Lancaster, Pa. " Here,-' 
he says, "I found the people in general dead to religion, and with 
scarcely a form of godliness." After preaching for some time in this 
neighborhood, he went into the State of Maryland. 

In December, 1784, the first Methodist General Conference held 
in America assembled in Baltimore. In 1795 the Rev. Richard 
Whatcoat was appointed to Baltimore Circuit. Mr. Allen traveled 
much with him, and was finally appointed to the charge of a small 
Church in the city of Baltimore. While here Bishop Asbury sent for 
him, and expressed a desire to have him travel with him, stating that 
he would give him his victuals and clothes ; that he, Mr. Allen, 
would frequently have to sleep in his carriage ; but that he must not, 
when in slave States, intermingle with the slaves. Mr. Allen told the 
Bishop that he could not consent to travel with him under any such 
conditions, and although the Bishop still urged it, and gave him three 
months to consider the matter, he remained firm in his refusal. 

Shortly after this he returned to Pennsylvania, and traveled 
several months on Lancaster Circuit, and in the autumn of 1785 re- 
turned again to Radnor. During this time Mr. Allen endured many 
hardships. He received nothing from the Methodist connection ; 
and while he preached, like Paul, his own hands administered to his 
necessities. He says, " My usual method was, when I got bare of 
clothes to stop traveling and go to work, so that no man could say 
that I was chargeable to the connection." 

In February, 1786, Mr. Allen came to Philadelphia and preached in 
St. George's Church. After that he preached at several different places 
in the city, established prayer-meetings, and during that year raised a 
society of forty-two persons. He now saw it to be necessary that the 
colored people should have a place of worship, and mentioned the 
fact to some of them ; but in this he met great opposition, and was 
obliged, for a time, to abandon the idea. 

Mr. Allen was the first proposer of the African Church, and put 
the first spade into the ground to dig a cellar for it. Finding that 
the elder in charge of the St. George's Methodist Church was opposed 
to their proceedings, and would not preach for them, or have any 
thing to do w^th them, they held an election to determine what re- 



Richard Allen. 651 

ligious denomination they should unite with. Two were in favor of 
the Methodist — Eev. Absalom Jones and Mr. Allen — and a large 
majority in favor of the Church of England. Notwithstanding they 
had been so j)ersecnted, Mr. Allen and Mr. Jones were in favor of con- 
tinuing with the Methodist Episcopal Church ; " for," says the former, 
" I was confident that there was no religious sect or denomination 
that would suit the capacity of the colored people as Avell as the Meth- 
odist ; for the plain, simple Gospel suits best for any people, for the 
unlearned can understand, and the learned are sure to understand." 
A majority, however, were in favor of connecting themselves with 
the Protestant Episcopal Church. 

While engaged in these efforts the colored peoj)le suffered much 
persecution from some of the Methodists, and the pastor of St. 
George's threatened to turn them all out of the connection ; but they 
still continued their efforts to establish a church of their own, and 
finally succeeded in raising sufficient money to purchase a lot. A 
committee was appointed to look for a lot, and they agreed upon one 
situated near the corner of Sixth and Lombard-streets ; but after 
they had agreed to take it some of the connnittee found another on 
Fifth-street, which they bought, and the first lot was thrown upon 
Mr. Allen's hands. 

In 1Y93 a committee was appointed from the newly established 
Church to solicit Mr. Allen to become their minister, for there w^as no 
colored preacher in Philadelphia at that time but he. This offer he 
declined, telling them that he was a Methodist, and could not be any 
thing else. He told them, however, that he would not do any thing 
to retard the progress of their church, and that he Avould not start a 
subscription list for a Methodist church until they had done soliciting 
subscriptions for their church. 

Mr. Allen now bought an old frame, which had been used as a 
blacksmith's shop, and had it moved on the lot in Sixth-street, and 
fitted it up, at his own expense, as a place -of worship. In July, 1794, 
he solicited Bishop Asbury, who was then in the city, to 0})en the 
church for them, which he did. N'ew troubles now began: the min- 
ister at St. George's wished tliem to make over the Church to the 
Conference. This they refused to do ; and finding they were firm in 
their determination, he finally proposed that they should be incor- 



652 Methodist Bishops. 

porated, wliicli they agreed to. He drew up the act of incorpora- 
tion for them, and incorporated the Church under the Conference. 
Being ignorant of the character of this document, the colored people 
agreed to it, and labored under the same for ten years, when another 
minister was appointed, who demanded the keys of the church and 
forbade them holding meetings except by his orders. But they re- 
fused to do this, and took counsel on the matter. They were in- 
formed that they had been taken in, but that the act of incorporation 
could be altered by the consent of two thirds of the members. They 
called a meeting, in which it was unanimously agreed to alter the 
document. They then had another drawn up that took the church 
from the Conference. The elder of St. George's refused to preach 
for them unless they should give him $200 j^er year. This they 
refused to pay, considering it too much, as they would only re- 
ceive five sermons ; and they were left alone for one year. After 
some time Mr. Roberts, resident elder, came to Bethel and attempted 
to take possession of the pulpit, but was defeated. His successor, 
Bev. Robert Burch, did the same, but with no better success. He, 
however, appealed to the Supreme Court to know why the pulpit 
was denied him. This brought on a lawsuit, Avhich was decided in 
favor of the African Church. " Thus," says Mr. Allen, " by the 
providence of God, we were delivered from a long, distressing, and 
expensive suit, which could not be resumed, having been determined 
by the Supreme Court." 

About the time that Mr. Allen and his brethren in Bhiladelj^hia 
were having serious troubles and difficulties with some presiding 
elders, preachers in charge, and boards of trustees in Philadelphia, 
from 1787 to 1816, his colored friends in Baltimore were treated in 
a similar manner by the white preachers and trustees, and many who 
were disposed to seek a place of worship for themselves, rather than 
go to law about their houses of worship and their rights as members 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church were driven away from the 
Church in that city. 

Many of the colored people in other places were in a situation 
nearly akin to those of Philadelphia and Baltimore. This state of 
things, over which they had no possible control, induced them to 
call a meeting — a convention, or general conference. Delegates from 



RiciiAKD Allen. 653 

Baltimore and otlier places met at the time and place appointed — in 
Bethel Church, riiiladelphia, Pa., April, 1816. They prayerfully 
took into consideration their grievances, and in order to secure their 
Christian privileges, and promote unity and harmony of action among 
themselves, it was resolved by the Convention, "That the colored 
people of Philadelphia, Baltimore, and other places in the United 
States of America, should become one body, under the name and. title 
of the African Methodist Episcopal Church." 

The Business and Publishing Committee, consisting of Bichard 
Allen, Daniel Coker, and James Champion, say in their report, 
(which report was received and unanimously adopted by the Conven-'^ 
tion :) 

We have deemed it expedient to have a form of discipline, whereby we may 
guide our people in the fear of God, in the unity of the Spirit, and in the bonds 
of peace, and preserve us from tliat spiritual despotism which we have so re- 
cently experienced — remembering that we are not to lord it over God's heritage 
as greedy dogs that can never have enough ; but with long suffering and bowels 
of compassion to bear each other's burdens, and so fulfill tlie law of Christ, 
praying that our mutual strivings together for the promulgation of the Gospel 
may be crowned with abundant success. 

We remain your affectionate servants in the kingdom and patience of the 
Prince of Peace. Signed, Richard Allen, 

Daniel Coker, 
James Champion. 

The organization of the African Methodist Episcopal Church 
having been completed, the Bev. Bichard Allen, who had been or- 
dained seventeen years before by Bishop Asbury, was elected Super- 
intendent of the Church, and on April 11, 1816, was solemnly set 
apart for the episcopal office, by prayer and the imposition of hands 
of five regularly ordained ministers, one of whom was the Bev. 
Absalom Jones, a priest of the Protestant Episcopal Church, of the 
diocese of the Bt. Bev. Bishop White, of Pennsylvania ; at which 
time the Convention, or General Conference, did unanimously receive 
him as their Bishop, being fully satisfied of the validity of his epis- 
copal ordination. This ofince he continued to fill with credit and 
dignity fourteen years, nine months, and fifteen days, when it pleased 
the Lord to take him from labor to reward. 

As a man, Bichard Allen was hard-working, honest, and indus- 



654 Methodist Bishops. 

trioiis, and a most excellent practical economist. By liis industry 
and economy he acquired more than was necessary to render him 
comfortable. He became, not, indeed, a millionaire, but a man of 
wealth, such as enabled him to support a large and expensive family, 
and to liberally educate his children. In this respect, as well as in 
religion and morality of the purest kind, he was an example to his 
race. He was to them a living example of industry, economy, 
Christian liberality, and as a lover of all mankind, but especially 
those of the household of faith. Suffering humanity found relief at 
his hands, when known to him, without regard to race or color. He 
was a most practical humanitarian. 

His education did not extend much above that of the common 
school, but he was a man possessing extraordinary natural endow- 
ments as a governor and as a preacher. 'No invidious distinction is 
made when it is said, there has never been his equal among all his 
successors in office : no one combining the same amount of intellect- 
ual strength, beauty, and force of character, that was found in 
Bichard Allen. He was a perfect giant in native intellect and moral 
greatness. Like Saul among the men of Israel, he stood head and 
shoulders above his brethren. As a pastor in the Church and presi- 
dent in the Conference he commanded and received the respect of 
all by his manly deportment. Men instinctively felt themselves 
under the necessity of loving, respecting, and obeying him. They 
felt that they must do so as a kind of agreeable necessity, which they 
could not avoid, and had no desire, no inclination, to resist. 

It was not the original intention of Bishop Allen and his brethren 
to become an independent branch of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
They intended only to have separate meeting houses and societies 
under one and the same doctrines, discipline, and government, with 
their white brethren, enjoying with them the same rights and privi- 
leges in the Church of God, without distinction of race or color. 
But the revelations of time convinced him and his brethren and 
their white friends, that such a state of things could not exist while 
slavery existed and slave-holders were allowed to become members 
of the Methodist societies. He found that, to enjoy such privileges, 
the colored people among the Methodists must not only have socie- 
ties, but, to make the matter complete, they must have a separate 



KiciiARD Allen. 655 

government, under their own control, managed by their own leaders 
and rulers, of every sort and kind. It was on account of this unavoid- 
able necessity that they called a convention for the organization of a 
Church, and being thus called, they organized it. This Church w^as 
not, in the literal sense of the term, a Church of seceders from Meth- 
odism or the Methodist economy ; but it was rather a branch — an off- 
shoot from the Methodist Episcopal Church — an additional branch of 
American Methodism from the original trunk. 

Mr. Allen succeeded in living upon the most friendly terms with 
the ministers and members of the Methodist Episcopal Church all 
the days of his long life, by whom he was always most highly re- 
spected. He and his people have never ceased to have a host of 
faithful and true friends within the pale of that Church. This last 
remark is also true of many Episcopalians, Quakers, (or members of 
the Society of Friends,) Presbyterians, and some others, for all of 
whom we return to God most devout thanksgiving and praise. 

Mr. Allen was a man of deep, vital piety and godliness. He 
made the Christian life a business. He believed in a doctrinal, ex- 
perimental, practical Christian life. He made no compromise with 
sin and Satan. He w^atched as well as prayed, day and night. Thus 
he continued to live all the days of his Christian pilgrimage, growing 
in grace and in the knowdedge of the truth, until he was called from 
labor to his rew^ard in heaven. 

For twelve years after his becoming a Bishop he labored and 
fulfilled the duties of that office alone to the great satisfaction of the 
Church and the ministry. In May, 1828, Rev. Morris Brown was 
elected assistant Bishop, by whom Bishop Allen w^as relieved of a 
portion of the work in the matter of traveling. But in other re- 
spects he continued to labor, to the extent of his ability, to the end 
of his days, when he ceased " at once to work and live," taking leave 
of his family, the Church, and his brethren in the ministry, in great 
peace, and in hope of a most blessed and glorious resurrection. He 
died March 26, 1831. "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord : 
Yea, saith the Spirit ; that they may rest from their labors." 

He astonished all who knew him in his life and public labors, by 
his devotion, zeal, patience, and perseverance in the cause of God 
and humanity, practicing as well as preaching the Gospel of the Son 
38 



656 Methodist Bishops. 

of God, the Gospel of our salvation. And most earnestly and elo- 
quently did he persuade his fellow-men and brethren to do the same. 
He always spoke from a heart filled with the Holy Ghost, and with 
a faith like that of Stephen, by which he won many sonls and brought 
them to Christ, who will be stars in his crown of rejoicing in the day 
of the Lord. He was not only great and good in public, but also in 
priyate, life. He was not only able, but ready and willing, to com- 
municate to those who desired to receiye information or instrnction 
from him. Easy of approach, his motto was : •' Freely ye liaye re- 
ceived, freely give." 

He was a man of unblemished character from his youth, throuo^h 
all the journey of his seventy years. He had a good report from 
those who were without the pale of the Church as well as from 
those within. He lived witli a conscience void of offense toward 
God and toward man. He was not ashamed of the Gospel among 
high or low, rich or poor, bond or free, nor did he fear the face of 
mortal man. 

Though a man of such large natural endowments, they never 
equaled his spiritual attainments — the graces of the Spirit which he 
possessed, and the love of God shed abroad in his lieart by the Holy 
Ghost which was given unto him. By these gifts he was always more 
than conqueror through '' Him that loved us, and washed us from our 
sins in his own blood, and made us kings and priests unto God and 
his Father." 

George Washington, the " Father- of his country;"' Thomas Jeff- 
erson, first among American statesmen ; and Francis Asbury, the 
wonderfully great and good pioneer Bishop of American Methodism, 
were not one of them a whit greater, according to their advantages 
and the demands made upon them, than was Eichard Allen, the father 
and founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, among the 
slaves and free colored people of America. 







\ 



Jgg^i^^ 




P.EY AA^M. PAUL QUINN. 



William Paul Quinn, 



BY BISHOP JOHN M. BKOWN. 



TinLLIAM PAUL QITi:^Isr was born in obscurity. The precise 
Tt period of his birth is unknown. lie was a native of Calcutta, 
Hindustan. 

My rehition to him from 184:0 to 1855 as his private secretary, 
gave me ample opportunity to learn something of the inner life of the 
man, as our relations w^ere then most intimate : indeed, they contin- 
ued so up to the time of his death. Yery early in life he came to 
the United States, and became a resident of Pennsylvania. His man- 
hood, development, and all that is great about his name, commenced 
in the neighborhood of Philadelphia. 

Mr. Quinn was converted in Maryland, just across the line. He 
was educated in that region, and had all his associations with the 
people of eastern Pennsylvania. Pie began his ministry under the 
guidance of Bishop Allen. 

He was, altliough young, immediately and intimately connected 
with the founders of African Methodism. In the city where he 
long lived and died is published a paper knowm as " The Kichmond 
Independent," wdiich is authority for the following statement : " His 
age is variously stated by his family and friends, one of our oldest 
citizens placing it at ninety-four, while those of his family think his age 
to have been about seventy-six, though nothing definite can be ascer- 
tained. He was born at Calcutta, Hindustan, where his father and 
uncle were extensively engaged in the mahogany trade, and liis family 
was considered one of the wealthier of the Indian families. He wit- 
nessed the many cruelties inflicted by the Hindus upon each other from 
an early age. These practices were, however, utterly repugnant to 
him, which feeling was strengthened by the teachings and preaching of 
Mary Walden, a missionary from the Society of Friends, who went to 
that country from England. In consequence of this teaching, and his 
behef in the doctrines advanced by her, Mr. Quinn was driven from 



660 Methodist Bishops. 

his home by his father, and went to Ensjland. There he came under 
the notice of Elias Hicks, the founder of the sect of Quakers known 
as the Hicksites, and he was by him brouo^ht to his home on Long 
Island. After a short residence with Mr. Hicks he went to Mary- 
land, and during his sojourn there was converted and joined the 
Methodist Church." 

There are persons who have attempted to account for the discrep- 
ancy between the accounts given of his age, because of some probable 
reference to the calendars of the Hindus, but there is no doubt the 
date of his birth Avas indefinite in his own mind. " But what cares 
the world who begat us, or who nestled us ? what cares it of the place 
or the hour?" Pontus, the biograj)her of St. Cyprian, refuses to 
inform us of his life previous to his conversion, and gives us as a 
reason, that what a man does before his conversion to Christ is not 
worth knowing.* The acts of William Paul Quinn as Christian and 
minister are to us of the most interest. Was he useful ? Did he 
accomplish any thing ? These are the important questions. 

The first time any mention is made of him is in connection with ec- 
clesiastical affairs. The African Methodist Episcopal Church was organ- 
ized at Philadelphia, at a convocation convened in that city, April, 1816. 
Though quite a young man, the old men often spoke of him " as mak- 
ing himself generally useful at the convention, though not a mem- 
ber." In person he was tall and commanding, so that his standing 
position against one of the pillars of the church when he first came 
in attracted general attention. His pleasant looks and manners were 
remarked by a number of the old men present, whose hearts were at 
once drawn toward him. Two years only passed before he entered 
the army of the Lord, just then recruiting the men who were to do 
battle valiantly. The minutes of the Conference of 1817 are not 
at hand, and we have no evidence that he did not join the Confer- 
ence before 1818 ; but in the Minutes of that year (1818) we have the 
following brethren named as members of the Conference, namely : 
of Baltimore, Revs. Daniel Coker, Pichard Williams, and Charles 
Pierce; of Philadelphia, Bishoj) Allen, Jacob Tapsiee, Clayton Dur- 
ham, and William Paul Quinn. Becoming associated with the men 
who organized the African Methodist Episcopal Church, he at once 

* Tanner's " Apology for African Methodism." 



William Paul Quinn. 661 

became noted for liis tireless zeal among his fellow-workers in the 
vineyard of the Lord, lie was the first man in the African Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, who, in old-fashioned style, "mounted his 
horse to itinerate." The logic of these old men, if not according to 
the rules of Bacon, Whateley, Hamilton, or True, was powerfid 
and convincing. '' There were giants in the earth in those days," 
and these were of them. 

The days in which Quinn lived wonderfully influenced him. Every 
man was, in some way, affected by the revolutionary sentiments then 
prevalent in the country, and he, as w^ell as thousands of our race 
after our second great war, felt intensely the truthfulness of that 
clause in the Declaration of Independence, "All men are created 
equal." This, to him, was not a " rhetorical flourish," or " glittering 
generality^" but a reality born in him, and therefore a part of his 
nature. The African Methodist Episcopal Church had two purposes 
in its organization, one general, and the other special. " The general 
purpose was to assist in bringing the w^orld to a knowledge of the Son 
of God ; the special purpose was to assist in relieving the African 
race from their physical, mental, and moral bondage." 

As in youth he had learned to hate and condemn the barbarous treat- 
ment of his race in India, so he learned to hate no less the oppression of 
the sons of Africa in the United States. He saw their wrongs in Church 
and State, and he determined to do all in his power to weaken the 
strong hold of the oppressor. His heart warmed toward humanity 
every-where, and the love of Jesus led him to love the bondsman 
specially — to live and work for him ; and when this new organization 
made its purposes known, he at once embraced its doctrine, and faith- 
fully defended it. These were days of darkness ; the opposition was 
fearful ; Church and State seemed leagued together to oppress ; but the 
colored people made a bold move and firm stand for their convictions. 
They were few in number, poor, and ignorant of letters ; yet they 
arrayed themselves against that wdiich seemed insurmountable. Many 
thought their course unwise ; others derided them, and said, "If a fox 
but run across the walls of their superstructure it must fall." Not 
so it seems now; for African Methodism, like the parent Church, has 
certainly had its mission. 

That w^hich has made Methodism in its polity a marvel of success 



632 Methodist Bishops. 

— the itinerant system — was at once adopted by the African Methodist 
Episcopal Church. How these very poor men, with no experience, 
came to adopt so readily snch a self-sacrificing system we cannot divine, 
unless we believe that they were imbued with the spirit of the apostles, 
who were sent out two by two, and mounted to their ministry like the 
sons of Wesley, who obeyed the command of Jesus to " Go," by 
" preaching Christ and him crucified every-where." These colored 
embassadors, not unlike the true sons of Wesley, left all to hunt up 
and unite the scattered colored members of the household of faith. 
Young Quinn, tall and straight, as we have said, was strong of body, 
and his complexion of Indian type. His hair was straight, black, and 
wavy, and he had a clear, full, and rich voice. His whole make-up 
was such as to impress the observer that he was born to rule. Like 
his people — the natives of India — he thought much on spiritual things. 
He possessed large spiritual endowments. His preaching abounded in 
symbolism. He was eloquent, he was earnest, he was plain-spoken to 
a fault. The African Methodist Episcopal Church at this period was 
confined to Eastern Pennsylvania, 'New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, 
and the District of Columbia. All over this region he traveled, and 
was among the first to enter the City of New York, where he organ- 
ized a Church. He early determined to visit the West. Bishop 
Payne, in his " Semi-Centennial Sketch of African Methodism," says : 
"He traveled a few years in the Eastern Conferences, but they 
were too circumscribed, and when he listened to reports of the land 
that lay beyond the mountains, his soul was afiame for conquest and 
victory. He invaded the land of the West, and no conqueror was ever 
more gloriously triumphant. The fruits of his labors were not a 
few individuals, nor yet Churches, but he laid whole Conferences at 
the feet of his King." He also says, " While our Church was con- 
quering territory in a foreign land, she was also strengthening her 
stakes, and enlarging her borders in the great West. This extension 
was promoted chiefly tlirough the wisdom, endurance, and activity of 
William Paul Quinn." In a sermon preached on "The Life and 
Death of Bishop Quinn," the Rev. B. W. Arnett remarked, that, "he 
crossed the Alleghany mountains, and all along the Monongahela val- 
ley the voice of this pioneer was heard encouraging his people to arise 
and call upon their God. Thousands gathered to hear the word of 



William Paul Quinn. 663 

trutli that fell from his lips, and the multitudes listened with rapture 
and delight to his message of salvation. He arrived at Pittsburgh, 
and in an old foundery established a Church, and set up the banner of 
the living God. We next find him at Steubenville, Ohio, and here was 
organized the hrst African Methodist Episcopal Church in that State. 
Some say this was done as early as 1823. There were in this organi- 
zation twenty menibers. He organized the Churches at Mount Pleasant, 
Belmont, Zanesville, Lancaster, and Chillicothe. He also visited Cin- 
cinnati, where he superintended the organization of the Church in 
that city ; it w^as organized in an old lime shed. Many other Churches 
in Ohio were either organized by him, or by his earnest efforts greatly 
strengthened." 

So well had he done, and so w^ell pleased were the members of the 
General Conference of 1840, which met in Baltimore, Md., that they 
made him general missionary to the West. In 1844 he made his 
report to the General Conference as follows : 

I submit a brief outline of the work committed to my hands: 

Inhabitants of Indiana and Illinois. 18,000 ! 

Ohurclies established 47 

Communicants 1,080 

Local Preacliers 27 

Traveling- Preachers 20 

Traveling Elders 7 

Schools 40 

Scholars 920 

Colored Teachers 36 

Teachers 40 

Sabbath-schools 50 

Sabl)ath-school Scholars 2,000 

Sabbath-scbool Teacher? 200 

Colored Sabbath-school Teachers 100 

Temperance Societies 40 

Members 2,000 

Camp-meetings held 17 

These were the reports which cheered the hearts of those who had 
labored hard and long for the cause of their Master. A Bishop was 
to be elected, and, as if by inspiration, they declared that this w^as the 
man for the bishopric. The election was easy, opposition slight, (the 
Kev. Kichard Kobinson, of the New York Conference, was his chief 
competitor,) and on Sabbath morning, May 19, 1844, this self-sacrificing 



664 Methodist Bishops. 

and successful missionary was ordained the fourtli Bishop of the 
African Methodist Episcopal Church. Few men traveled more than 
he. Up to 1856 he held the Conferences in Canada, and laid the foun- 
dation for the present British Methodist Episcopal Church, of which 
the late Eev. Willis Nazrj, was Bishop. 

He was not educated in the schools, but was well versed in men 
and things. Few men had a clearer insight into the duties of life, and 
few accomplished so well the requirements of their chosen profession. 

Plato, in numerous places, esteems as nothing the most shining 
qualities and actions of those who govern if they do not tend to pro- 
mote the two great ends of the virtue and happiness of the people. 

Did Bishop Quinn promote virtue and happiness ? The many 
Clmrches, Conferences, societies, and institutions organized by him 
show that he labored ardently for the promotion of these ends. 
"When he entered the itinerant work, fifty-five years before his death, 
there were but two Annual Conferences, namely, the Philadelphia 
and Baltimore ; but when he died, there were twenty-three of them. 
At his entrance into the ministry there were but seven itinerant 
preachers ; at his death there were nearly two thousand. The mem- 
bership increased from fifteen hnndred to over three hundred thou- 
sand. All the living Bishops were ordained by him, namely. Bishops 
"Willis E"azry, of the British Methodist Episcopal Church, and Daniel 
A. Payne, D.D., May, 1852, in ;N"ew York; A. W. Wayman, and J. 
P. Campbell, D.D., May, 1864, in Philadelphia, assisted by Bishops 
IS'azry and D. A. Payne ; J. A. Shorter, T. M. D.»Ward, and J. M. 
Brown, assisted by Bishops Payne, Wayman, and Campbell, in Wash- 
ington, D. C, May, 1868. When Bishop Quinn entered there were 
but two meeting-houses, the value of which did not exceed $4,000 ; 
but the value of church, parsonage, and school property was not 
less than $10,000,000 at the time of his death. There was then no 
Book Concern, Missionary Society, or Chartered Fund ; but at his 
death these important institutions had been inaugurated and put in 
successful operation. Bishop Quinn was always a firm friend to an 
educated ministry, and gave his influence to promote the education 
of j)ious men for the work of the ministry, and to suppress the 
ignorance in the same. He was always kind to his younger brethren, 
and had a pleasant word for all. If a brother made a mistake and 



William Paul Quinn. 665 

fell into error, lie always remembered the words of St. Paul : " Bretli- 
ren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye wliicli are spiritual, restoi-e 
such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou 
also be tempted." lie was stern in his manners, but as tender as a 
woman and as fatherly as David. Thus he saved to the Church many 
who blundered. No one was more cheerful than he — a real Methodist 
preacher for jokes. He thought, as did Pope, " gentle dullness ever 
loves a joke ; " or, as Gay says : 

" A witty joke our senses move — 
To pleasant laughter." 

]^one could be dull about him, but even in this he would turn his 
joke to some good account, and riiake it tell for the cause nearest his 
heart. He was very pious, and loved Christ with all his heart. He 
had great faith in God, w^ith uncommon love for the souls of men. 
He long and earnestly prayed for the abolition of slavery, and lived 
to see the last slave emancipated, enfranchised, and made a citizen of 
the United States. At the General Conference which met in Nash- 
ville, May, 1872, because of his extreme age and many infirmities he 
was placed on the retired list. He did not ask for it, but the mem- 
bers of that body thought it wise and prudent to retire him, but to 
continue his support the same as the other Bishops. 

February 21, 1873, the Church was startled by the sad news of the 
death of Bishop Quinn. Less than one year after he was relieved 
from active duties his Master called him home to receive his eternal 
reward. He had been in feeble health for nearly a year, but not until 
the second Sabbath in December, 1872, was he confined to the house. 
He then called for his neighbors and friends. Elder Nathan Twitch um, 
of the Indiana Conference, came to see him, and by his assistance he 
made his will, when he remarked, " I have settled my affairs, and am 
at peace with God and man." '^ I am ready now," he said to Kev. 
Johnson Twitchum, just after a severe attack ; '^ O, how wonderful is 
God ! how he can uphold us ! " And again, " Another such surge, and 
the Avar will be over ! I am so happy ; I see a light brighter than the 
fire, along my path to heaven ! " 

The Elder of Pearl-street Methodist Episcopal Church, said to him : 
" Bishop, how is it with you ? " He replied, " My sky is clear, all is 



666 Methodist Bishops. 

well." He said to liis attendant, Brother Evans, " Tell Marj (his 
wife) that I die in about an hour, and I will be with Jesus." 

He had all through life been modest in appearance and manner, 
and not fond of show or display. At the hour of death his desire to 
avoid extravagance and ostentation did not leave him, as he gave the 
dli-ections to Bishop Shorter for his funeral, saying, "I want to be 
l)uried in a plain manner. I want no fuss over me ; but if the people 
want to sing and shout they can do so ; but bury me in a jA^in manner." 
When the powers of speech failed him, he quietly fell asleep in the 
arms of Jesus. His funeral occurred March 4, 1873, from the Pearl- 
street Methodist Episcopal Church. All ages and colors filled the 
church to its utmost capacity. Bishop Quinn selected his own hymn, 
and, by request. Bishop Shorter announced it : 

" A solemn march we make, 
Toward the silent grave." 

Bishop Payne offered prayer and read the fifteenth chapter of First 
Corinthians as the Scripture lesson. The sermon, by BishojD J. P. 
Campbell, was from the text, " I have fought a good fight, I have fin- 
ished my course, I have kept the faith." At all of our Conferences 
memorial sermons were delivered by his colleagues. Many of the 
pastors of our Churches held memorial services. 

Clark Wagoner, Esq., in speaking of his death, at Toledo, Ohio, 
said, " Bishop Quinn's eminent success was due, not to the fact that 
he was a noble specimen of human organism, standing over six feet in 
height, well proportioned, and uniformly vigorous, but to the indwell- 
ing princij^le of the grace of God in his soul, whereby he was qualified 
for the great heart-work of his valuable life. The same blessed power 
must inspire and direct human actions to all truly noble ends." 

He is dead whose usefulness had made a Bishop, and goodness and 
faith a great man. 



i' 



W' 




REV MORRIS BROWN. 



Morris Brown. 



BY BISHOP D. A. PAYNE. 



MOEEIS BEOWK was born in Cliarleston, S. C, in 1770. His 
parentage is not known. He was of light brown complexion, 
and was about six feet two inches high, well proportioned, with 
a slight tendency to corpulency. His head was large ; -his eyes, clear 
and expressive, shone from beneath shaggy eye-brows. According to 
the general theory that bulk as well as brain is a necessary condition 
of effectiveness in life, he ought to have been one of the greatest of 
men. But as in the case of the best marble, if not quarried, squared, 
and polished, its iine color and beautiful vein will forever be hidden ; 
so, also, with man, if education does not perform her developing 
functions iipon him, his talents, although angelic, will never exhibit 
their beautiful hues and elegant proportions. 

Morris Brown was born and grew up to mature years in the 
days of South Carolinian slavery. Some schools there were, but not 
for black men. Some teachers, also, there were, but not for colored 
children. Up to 1835 and later, the free colored people in South 
Carolina were excluded from the schools in which children were taught. 
Somewhere about 1808 or 1809 a white Methodist local preacher by the 
name of Muns, from the British West Indies, and a colored man by 
the name of Thomas S. Bonneau, opened private schools for free col- 
ored children ; but at that date Morris Brown was about thirty-eight 
years old, with a growing family on his hands. The a2:>ostolic Asbury 
knew Brown. He also knew slavery well ; hence his deep sympathy 
with the blacks, of whom he made so many memoranda in his journal, 
and in whose behalf he induced the General Conference of 1800 to 
memorialize the General Assembly of South Carolina. More than 
once, while some of his preachers w^ere enjoying themselves in the 
parlors with masters and household, he went into the kitchen to 
comfort and instruct the slaves. Morris Brown did learn to read 
the Bible, but when and bv whom he was taught we cannot now 



670 Methodist Bishops. 

ascertain. Probablv he was taught, as were a few free colored people 
and a few slaves, bj some white person, who was paid for his trouble 
with baked sweet potatoes. Like Bishop Allen, he was nnable to 
write his own official letters ; hence he always employed an amanuen- 
sis. The writer of this sketch frequently enjoyed the happiness and 
honor of conducting the episcopal correspondence of the latter. 

*" The child is father of the man." This truthful line of AVords- 
worth was fully realized in the history of Morris Brown ; for as his 
childhood was marked by docility, sweetness of temper, reverence for 
age and authority, so, also, in maturer years these manly virtues 
bloomed into their correspondent Christian graces. Early after he 
had experienced a change of heart his daily conduct became marked 
by meekness, dutifulness, patience, zeal for the glory of God in the 
salvation of men, and benevolence toward all. A class-leader, an ex- 
horter, then a preacher, he gradually attained the rank and office of an 
elder ; but by whom he was ordained we cannot tell. It was not 
customary for Bishop Asbury to record the names of those whom he 
ordained. What induced him to name Daniel Coker and William Mil- 
lar, whom he ordained in the city of Xew York, on April 27, 1S08, 
I know not. These were more remarkable men — moi'e remarkable 
on account of their physique, more remarkable on account of their 
talents and education. The former was the first Bishop elect of the 
African Methodist Episcopal Church, but Avas not ordained, because 
he declined the election. The latter became one of the superintend- 
ents of the Zion African Methodist Episcopal Churcli. 

But that Morris Brown was one of the '* colored missionaries " by 
whom Bishop Asbury said '' the Lord is doing wonders " in Charles- 
ton, S. C, I have not a shadow of doubt. He was not present at the 
Convention of 1816, when the African Methodist Episcopal Church 
was organized, but was present at the Baltimore Annual Conference 
of 1818 as an elder, and was one of its most active business men. If 
ordained by Bishop Allen, it must have been at the Philadelphia An- 
nual Conference of 1817. Lie was probably ordained a deacon and 
elder durino- the session of that Conference. 

o 

That he was the master mind of the thousands who withdrew from 
the Methodist Episcopal Church after the death of the fatherly As- 
bury is certain, because he represented them at the Baltimore Annual 



Morris Brown. 671 

Conference of 1818, as elder, in charge of the increasing flock in 
Charleston and its vicinity. In 1822 a plot for the overthrow of 
slavery in South Carolina was discovered before it had reached ma- 
tnrity. Its six leaders, at the head of whom was Denmark Vesey, 
were arrested and hnng, at the same moment, on the same gallows. 
Snbsequently, twenty-two others of the conspirators were also hung, 
simultaneously, on the same gallows. Be it known and remembered, 
that not a drop of the blood of any slaveholder had been shed, 
nor had the person of any white man been assailed : the plot only was 
conceived and maturing. But such was the panic of the slave-holders 
that the very purpose of insurrection was punished before it was car- 
ried into overt act. The excitement produced in South Carolina was 
fearful. Every free colored man a non -slave-holder, as well as every 
slave, was w^atched, and grounds of suspicion sought against. him. It 
was, therefore, perfectly natural tha,t Morris Brown, the leader of more 
than three thousand black Christians, should also be closely vratched, and 
cause for action against him be diligently sought. All that was needed 
for his arrest and death was the shadow of a proof. But General 
James Hamilton, who at the time embodied the political sentiment 
of South Carolina, being well acquainted w^ith the lamb-like temper 
of Brown, and his profound respect for law and authority, could not 
indulge the suspicion that he was in any manner connected with the 
contemplated insurrection ; and he therefore took him and kept him 
in his own private residence till he could secure him a safe conduct 
to the free North. 

This event placed him in daily communication with Bishop Allen, 
who made him acquainted with all his desires and intentions for the 
improvement of the three Conferences then existing, and also with 
his plans and measures for the extension of the African Methodist 
Episcopal Church over the free States, and as far South as slavery 
would permit it to go and operate. Bishop Allen had unbounded 
confidence in the judgment and integrity of Elder Browm. Tliis he 
evinced by appointing him assistant Bishop, some two years prior to 
his election by the General Conference of 1828, at which time he 
was ordained the second Bishop of the Connection. Immediately 
after this event he entered earnestly upon the duties of his. office, 
assisting Bishop Allen in devising and executing new plans for the 



672 Methodist Bishops. 

extension of tlie work wliicli tlie Saviour had committed to their 
hands. 

In March, 1831, Bishop Allen was summoned to enjoy the ''saints' 
everlasting rest," and then the whole duty of caring for all the 
Churches became Bishop Brown's alone. This sacred burden he car- 
ried upon his broad shoulders meekly, patiently, gracefully ; and the 
blessings of the great Head of the Church attended his ministrations, 
both as a preacher and an overseer. For sixteen years he stood alone 
at the head of all the movements of the Connection, ornamenting it 
by his spotless piety, and blessing it by his successful labors. It is 
true that Rev. Edward Waters was elected and ordained the third 
Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1836, yet this 
fact added nothing to the strength or efficiency of the episcopacv, 
because he had neither taste nor qualifications for the office, and 
because he never, excepting in two instances, performed the functions 
of a Bishop ; and therefore the labors of Bishop Brown were not in 
the least diminished. It was Bishop Browm who' organized the Ohio 
Annual Conference, at Hillsborough, O., in 1830, and appointed 
.Elder W. P. Quinn a general missionary, with the power of a 23re- 
siding elder, for all the regions west of the State of Ohio. It was he 
who organized the Canada Annual Conference, in July, 1840, and 
the Indiana Annual Conference in October of the same year. At 
this period, the field which he actually traversed extended from the 
Atlantic to the great valley of the Mississippi. St. Louis was the 
terminus of his route. In all these Western Avilds his efficient co- 
laborer was Elder Quinn, both of whom were well adapted for 
pioneer work, because they were very robust. 

During the episcopate of Bishop Brown the Connection was so 
poor, and his dependent family so large, that he was constrained to 
act as pastor of the mother Church in Philadelphia ; therefore he 
devoted about half of each year to that particular pastorate. The 
other half found him on the wing from Conference to Conference 
and from station to station. This double charge he held from the 
death of Bishop Allen until May, 1844, when the General Conference 
deemed it proper to confine his labors to the episco23al work. We 
have already stated that he was destitute of a good common-school 
training; nevertheless, he was always the friend and advocate of 



MouKis Bkowjst. 673 

education. On all proper occasions, in private and in public, lie stood 
up nobly in its defense. His real opinions and sentiments touch- 
ing the education of the ministry of the African Methodist Episcopal 
Church were manifested on two occasions, to which I think proper 
here to refer. 

Three candidates for tlie holy order of deacons were put into the 
hands of an examining committee. This committee consisted of three, 
a majority of which reported in favor of the candidates ; the minority, 
a single man, reported against them, because they lacked the literary 
qualifications required by the Discipline, which then consisted of 
nothing more than a knowledge of the rise and progress of the Con- 
nection, tlie divisions necessary in a discourse, the doctrines and gov- 
ernment of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. 

As soon as the counter-report was read. Rev. R. Collins sprang to 
his feet and demanded whether ii: had come to pass that no one could 
be ordained a deacon in the African Methodist Episcopal Church till 
he could read Greek and Latin and Hebrew ; he then spoke for 
about twenty or thirty minutes, during which he emptied the vials of 
his wrath upon the head of the brother who had dared to oppose the 
ordination of the said candidates. 

To all this his opponent simply replied by referring to the report, 
in which there was no allusion to Latin, Greek, or Hebrew, but simply 
to the plain letter and spirit of the Discipline. Then, opening the Bible 
upon 1 Timothy iii, 10, he read : " And let these also first be proved ; 
then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless." 
Again, from v, 22: "Lay hands suddenly on no man.'' Intrench- 
ing himself behind these two bulwarks of truth, the young brother 
discharged such bomb-shells into the ranks of the enemy that at the 
end of the raking fire the good old Bishop Brown arose and said : " I 
am placed in this chair not to carry out the opinions of any man or 
set of men, but to execute this Discipline to its very letter ; and if tlie 
whole Conference vote for the ordination of the said brethren, in 
view of their disqualification I could not, and would not, ordain 
them." Then he added : " When we send out men who are disquali- 
fied the people do not blame the Conference, but the Bishop, saying : 
' Why does the Bishop send us such a man ? ' " Whereupon the 
minority report was adopted by an overwhelming majority. 



674 Methodist Bishops. 

The effect was wliolesoine. The young men returned next year 
better quahfied for the office to which they aspired. 

The other occasion was in Philadelphia, Pa. Between June, 184:3, 
and May, 1844, the w^riter of this article had published five ''Epistles 
on the Education of the Ministry." These letters produced great 
excitement among those local and itinerant preachers who believed 
that, because they w^ere called to preach, therefore they were also 
inspired, as were the apostles, and therefore had no need of educa- 
tion. Hence the man who dared to oppose them was denounced 
from Dan to Beersheba as an " infidel." Other liard epithets were 
also applied to him, none of which he regarded; but he became 
alarmed at the threat that if the approaching General Conference 
of ISll: would adopt his views on the subject of ministerial education, 
and indorse the plan which he proposed to secure that noble end, the 
African Methodist Episcopal Church would be ruined, that is, split 
from end to end. He therefore determined not to attend the Gen- 
eral Conference. As soon as Bishop Brown heard of this determina- 
tion, he said to the writer of " The Epistles on the Education of the 
Ministry," " That you should stay away from the General Conference 
is the very tiling your oj)ponents desire, in order that they may make a 
successful opposition to your views and your plans ; therefore I advise 
and urge you to be there." So the writer went to the General Con- 
ference, and his plan for the education of our young ministry was 
adopted, incorporated into our Discipline, and has been ever since an 
essential element in the work for the development of the African 
Methodist Episcopal Church. The least reflection will show how wise 
and timely was the advice of the good Bishop, and how an opposite 
course of conduct would have retarded and damaged the work of 
ministerial education among us. 

On the 9th of May, 18-19, about five o'clock in the morning, he 
closed his eyes upon his weeping wife, children, and numerous friends, 
to open them amid the light and the glory of the upper sanctuary. 
Thus lived and thus died Morris Brown, the second Bishop of the 
African Methodist Episcopal Church. The moral and religious ele- 
ments ruled his character and life ; so that, although he added nothing 
to the science or literature of the world, his labors and life constitute a 
solid contribution to its moral and religious wealth. 



^a 




P.EV EDA/VARD WATERS. 



Edward Waters. 



BY BISHOP A. W. WAYMA.N. 



EDWAED WATEES, third Bishop of the African Methodist 
Episcopal Churcli, was born a slave in Maryland, perhaps at or 
near West Eiver. lie came to Baltimore when a young man, and 
bought his freedom from one Mr. Duvall. He was a member of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church until about 1816. At that time the 
African Methodist Episcopal Church was organized. He, with Daniel 
Coker and several others, withdrew and formed a j^art of the new 
organization. I have no record from which to ascertain when he was 
ordained a deacon and elder. But when he was ordained it was by 
Richard Allen, the first Bisho]3 of the African Methodist Episcopal 
Church. In 1831 Bishop Allen died. There was then a rule in the 
Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Church which required 
the acting Bishop to choose an elder as an assistant. Bishop Morris 
Brown selected Rev. Edward Waters. In 1832 the General Confer- 
ence met in Philadelphia. The most prominent candidate for the 
position of Bishop was Rev. William Cornisli ; and it was conceded 
by most of the delegates that he would be elected. But some of the 
older members regarded Brother Waters as a very safe man, and 
urged his conservative nature as a very great argument in his favor. 
When the day for the election came, Rev. Edward Waters was elected, 
and ordained by Bishop Morris Brown. 

As there were only four Annual Conferences of the African 
Methodist Episcopal Church at that time, namely, the Philadeljjliia, 
Baltimore, New York, and Ohio Conferences, Bishop Waters was 
only required to be present at the Conferences as an assistant Bishoj). 
He never held an Annual Conference nor ordained a minister. 

He received his appointments annually as the other itinerant min- 
isters, which were entirely confined to the State of Maryland, with 
one single exception, and that was when, during one year, he served 
one of the Churches in Washington, D. C. 
39 



678 Methodist Bishops. 

He was not a man of education in the schools, jet, having made 
the Scriptures his special study, he was considered one of the ablest 
Bible preachers of his day in our Church, and his manner of preaching 
was much admired by the people. From 1S32 to 1847 he filled his 
place in the itinerant ranks, and generally did the most of his travel- 
ing on his circuits on foot, and whenever he said he was coming to an 
appointment he was always sure to be there. He often had said he 
would never disappoint a congregation if it were 230ssible to avoid it, 
whatever the circumstances were. At one time, in the early part of 
1847, he was returning home to Baltimore from one of his ap|)ointments 
on foot, when some young men, who were driving a vehicle of some 
kind, either intentionally or accidently ran over him, and he was 
severely injured. He managed, however, to reach the home of his 
daughter, where he remained until he died. 

The Baltimore Annual Conference met in Baltimore, April, 1847, 
and Bishop AYaters not being present at roll-call, which was so unusual 
a thing for him, inquiry was at once made concerning him, when it 
was first ascertained that he was injured- A committee consisting 
of two of the oldest ministers were sent to visit him. He told the 
committee to tell the Bishop and Conference he had met them for the 
last time on earth, but that the principles of the Gospel he had 
preached for so many years to others now afforded him solace in his 
declining moments. 

The Conference had scarcely adjourned, and the ministers reached 
their work, before they were summoned to Baltimore again to attend 
the funeral of Bishop Waters. 



AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL ZION CHURCH. 



THE organization of this branch of the Methodist family dates 
from 1820, when a very large congregation of colored members 
in 'New York, known as Zion Church, (formed in 1796,) seceded from 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, under the leadership of James 
M. Stilwell, a former pastor of John-street Church. The reason 
assigned was, that the New York Conference was about to take meas- 
ures in favor of vesting the title of Church property more securely 
in the Conference, and thus infringe on the rights of the laity. They 
sought, for a time, to be organized as a separate Conference under the 
name of the African Methodist Conference, under the jDatronage and 
government of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Philadelphia 
Conference, learning of their desires and plans, and of their invitation 
to Bishop M'Kendree to preside at a proposed Conference, adopted 
the following resolution, and forwarded it to the New York Confer- 
ence, with which the separating Churches had been connected : 

The Philadelphia Conference do advise and recommend that one of our Bish- 
ops do attend and preside in the African Conference appointed to sit in New- 
York, as an African Methodist Conference, under the patronage of our Bishops 
and Conference, agreeable to the proper plan, (if the I^ew York Conference agree 
with us,) to wit: 1. One of our members always to preside in the said Confer- 
ence, or in case no Bishop be present, then such wdiite elders as tlie Bishop may 
appoint, are to preside. 2. Our Bishops to ordain their deacons and elders, such 
as shall be elected by their own Conference and approved by the Bishop, and 
educated for the office. 

The New York Conference did not approve the resolution of the 
Philadelphia Conference, but the Conference was held, (June 21, 1821,) 
and Joshua Soule, afterward elected Bishop, and Dr. Phoebus, by 
invitation, met with them. A Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church was elected president, but no Bishop being present. Dr. Phoe- 
bus was chosen and presided, and Dr. Soule acted as secretary. Free- 



680 Methodist Bishops. 

born Garrettson was also present. A second Conference was lield in 
Philadelphia, in 1822, but the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, not believing they had authority to preside, declined to do 
so, and James Yarick was elected as the first Bishop. The first 
Conference was organized with twenty-two preachers, reporting an 
aggregate of one thousand four hundred and twenty six lay members. 
The doctrines are the same as those of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. The Bishops are elected for four years, and are eligible 
for re-election. The latest statistics reported show a total of 

Organized in 1796. 
Conferences, 22. 

Bishops, 6, (Bishop Clinton died in 1881.) 
Itinerant Preachers, 2,000. 
Local Preachers, 2,950. 
Lay Members, 300,000. 
College, 1, at Salisbury, N. C. 
Zion Institute is at Lancaster, S. C. 

Book Concern is at 183 Bleecker-street, K Y. ; Jacob Thomas. Agent. 
"The Star of Zion,'' the organ of the denomination, is published at Salis- 
bury, N. C. 



Solomon T. Scott, 



BY BISHOP 8. T. JONES. 



THE subject of this brief sketch was born in Smyrna, DeL, August 
26, 1790, and at an early period in life embraced religion, and 
gave a firm adherence to Methodism, which he as firmly maintained 
during life and in death. 

He was united in marriage in May, 1819, then in the twenty-ninth 
year of his age. His companion, who now mourns his departure in 
aged widowhood, shared with him the cares and privations inseparable 
from the life of an itinerant ministry for nearly lialf a century. 

Possessed of a bold and fearless spirit, and- ambitious to visit other 
lands, he made choice, for a livelihood, of that hazardous occupation, 
which, while it gratified his desire to behold the wonderful and the 
beautiful abroad, nevertheless fearfully exposed him to the perils of 
the deep. He became a useful mariner. 

To what extent the awfully grand exhibitions of the matchless 
power of God — sublime displays, alike, of his authority and care — 
w^hich the vast and boundless sea affords, influenced his future course, 
we may never know. We doubt not, how^ever, but that the great 
Teacher, who had selected him from the thousands of Israel for a 
special work, was meanwhile making use of all those thrilling inci- 
dents of his life at sea as so many instrumentalities by w^hich he was 
educating him for his work. .John, the forerunner of Jesus, was 
schooled in the wilderness of Judea, rather than at the feet of some 
learned doctor of the law, that he might be the better quahfied to do 
the vigorous work of preparing the way of the Lord. Dartmouth 
and. Yale, Princeton and Harvard, all great and grandly-useful insti- 
tutions of learning, may each, alike, be passed by, when the allwise 
God selects and prepares men for his high and holy purposes ; and in 
humbler, more obscure, and, to human ken, far less appropriate schools, 
men may be fashioned for the duties and ofiices of God's house and 
work. Not that scholastic training is unessential to fit the minister of 



682 Methodist Bishops. 

Christ for usefulness, or that the holy One refuses, in the main, to 
accept the preparatory labors of men in carrying forward the plans of 
Heaven ; but he is sometimes pleased to act so independently of the 
ordinary human appliances so frequently relied upon, in painful dis- 
regard of the far more essential divine qualifications, that, passing by 
the recognized agenciCvS, he himself teaches him in the school not 
founded by men, and from books of which he alone is the author. 

Thus signally does the Father of all our mercies disappoint the 
expectations and frustrate the plans of men. This strange, and in 
man's judgment impolitic, and therefore unapproved course on the 
part of Infinite "Wisdom, so far from working deterioration, invari- 
ably surpasses in usefulness and in beneficial results the finest touches 
of human skill ; thus demonstrating the divine origin, as well as the 
divine direction and management, of the Church. 

The wisdom of such selection and instruction is seen in the fact, 
that the gospel message is presented to mankind in rich variety, 
drawn from almost every profession and pursuit in life ; each instructor 
making use of those things with which he is most familiar, (of which 
the Scriptures furnish so many beautiful examples,) thereby illustrating 
the great truths of God with a simplicity and forcibleness compre- 
hensible by all ; and thus appropriated and applied by the divine Spirit, 
irresistibly carrying conviction to every heart. 

The beneficial effects of this happy appropriation of the most sim- 
ple means to most important ends may be readily recognized by 
those who can recall those instances- in the public ministrations of 
Bishop Scott, when he took for a text any passage of Scripture con- 
nected with the sea, vessels, or sailing, or, more than all, a text refer- 
ring to fishes or fishing. His unusual knowledge of and familiarity 
with any, and almost every, thing belonging to the mighty deep ; his 
astonishing recollection of nearly all the names, localities, habits, and 
peculiarities of the vast finny tribes ; his wonderful facility and appro- 
priateness in contrasting these peculiarities with the characters and dis- 
positions of men — now accurately describing the bold, bad man, now 
the timid, now the penitent mourner, now the newly-born convert, 
]iow the active Christian, the humble child of God, and now the luke- 
warm professor, by some corresponding disposition, trait of character, 
or striking similarity found in some inhabitant of the sea, enabled him 



Solomon T. Scott. 683 

to wield a power and influence for good truly enviable. His cele- 
brated "Fish Sermon," written by liis dictation, tliough shorn of 
niucli of tlie beanty, because lacking the inspiration of the sermon as 
preached by him, is, nevertheless, a most curious, interesting, and 
instructive production. 

Bishop Scott connected himself with the African Methodist Epis- 
copal Zion Church about 1830 ; joined the Philadelphia Conference 
three or four years later ; and was ordained a deacon by Bishop Kush 
in 1835. An emergency rendered it necessary for the Bishop to 
ordain him elder the same year, and to place him in charge of the 
Philadelphia station, left vacant by reason of the affliction of the reg- 
ularly appointed minister. 

Serving with great zeal and distinction during his pastorate in that 
city, and exhibiting unmistakable signs of future usefulness and avail- 
ability. Bishop Kush, with that keen penetration and far-seeing sagacity 
for which he was distinguished, discovered in the young preacher 
those qualities which fitted him for the rugged duties of a pioneer 
life, and assigned him to new and untried fields. Here the unflinch- 
ing courage, the indomitable spirit, and the determined will, which had 
often enabled him coolly to discharge the duties of a sailor under the 
most trying circumstances, and in the midst of danger, admirably fitted 
and sustained him in his new enterprise, and secured for him and the 
Church many a victory of the most brilliant character, wrung from 
the powers of darkness after the severest conflicts, where men of 
ordinary courage must have utterly failed. Mounted on a good horse, 
(for he would have none other,) this brave, undaunted sailor-preacher 
would travel through a district now poorly served by ten or a dozen 
itinerants, regularly administering the word of life in towns, villages, 
and neighborhoods ; scaling mountains, traversing valleys, and thread- 
ing by-paths through forests and mountain- fastnesses, preaching alike 
to the few or many, and scarcely receiving the absolute necessities, to 
say nothing of the comforts and conveniences, of life. The Church 
of his choice is very largely indebted to Bishop Scott for the flourish- 
ing condition of the work in Central and Western Pennsylvania, 
where his labors were principally bestowed. 

Eminently fitted as he was by these trying, but instructive, experi- 
ences, and endeared to his brethren by his heroic labors, his unswerv- 



G8-4 Methodist Bishops. 

ing attacliment to the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, as 
well as by the most jjleasaiit fraternal relations, he was elected to the 
Episcopacy by the General Conference held in ]N"ew York, in May, 
1856, and for four years he served with considerable distinction. Re- 
tiring from the position in 1860, he resumed, to him the more con- 
genial, work of a subordinate preacher, in which work he discharged 
zealously its rugged duties, notwithstanding his advanced age and 
slowly diminishing bodily strength, till within a few years of his last 
illness and death. 

On December 29, 1862, he passed away in sweet peace, and in 
full hope of a glorious future, at the ripe age of seventy-two years, 
in the same city (Philadelphia) where he began his ministerial labors 
in early life. 



James Varic. 



BY BISHOP S. T. JONES. 



THE very distinguished personage to whose memory the following 
brief sketch is dedicated, enjoyed the honor of being the first 
who was elevated to the Episcopal Chair in the African Methodist 
Episcopal Zion Church in America. He was born in New York in 
in 1795. Eeceiving a common school education, wdiich eminently 
fitted him for leadership among his race, and being endowed with 
great native ability, he was destined to act a prominent part in shaping 
the destiny of the Church-organization to which his subsequent labors 
were principally confined. 

It was his wisdom to have remembered his Creator in the days of 
his youth, and he early gave his heart to God, and enjoyed that per- 
manent and satisfying j^eace which he retained to the last. The verity 
of that consoling promise : '' Them that honor me, I will honor," finds 
abundant support and is beautifully illustrated in the history of Bishop 
Yaric. Firmly attached to the simple but comprehensive doctrines 
taught by Methodism, in love with her principles and Discipline, he 
espoused that blessed cause, even in that period of its unpopularity and 
numerical weakness. Taking his position in the denomination so early 
in its history, he became an active and energetic participant in what- 
ever promised to advance her interest, or glorify God. Thus steadily 
increasing in spiritual strength and usefulness, our youthful hero 
was licensed to preach in 1813, when but seventeen years of age. 
Entered fully upon the Vv^ork for which God and his nature had fitted 
him, he took a prominent and most serviceable part in the discussions 
engaged in at the several meetings held by the founders of the Con- 
nection, to determine as to the character of our episcopacy, and the 
peculiar principles of the organization; and, no doubt, contributed 
largely, if not mainly, to the final adoption of that purely Wesleyan 
type and simple Methodistic character prominent in the government 
of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. 



686 Methodist Bishops. 

Endeared to his brethren by years of active service in their inter- 
ests, he had now become immeasurably more so, not only by his valu- 
able aid in establishing an incomparable form of itinerancy, but by 
the unassuming, modest, and deferential manner which had character- 
ized his entire action. These characteristics, taken in connection with 
that keen, far-seeing sagacity, logical and forcible argumentativeness, 
practical thoughtfulness, and administrative ability, which he had 
exhibited during these preliminary proceedings, plainly designated 
him as the fit leader of the infant Church, and resulted in his ele- 
vation to the honorable position of the first Bishop of the African 
Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, in 1820. He entered upon the 
duties of the oflice with the confidence and hopes of the humble 
band of ministers who had thus honored him, filling the position with 
marked ability and distinction during twelve years. 

He was an able debater, and a most eloquent and forcible preacher. 
As such, he was very popular with his white brethren of Xew York, 
and jDreached on several occasions in the John-street Methodist Church 
with great acceptability. He is said to have been a close reasoner, and 
a very able advocate of the rights of his proscribed race, battling 
against the prejudices of the American people, and especially the 
insidious distinctions found in the Methodist Church at that early daj. 

After finishing a most brilliant and highly useful career, justly 
meriting the esteem of mankind, and particularly of that humble por- 
tion of it with whom he was more immediately identified, he died in 
full hope of a blissful immortality, leaving three sons and four daugh- 
ters to mourn his loss. 

It is worthy of remark that Bishop Yaric assumed the honors and 
dignity of the episcopate at the age of twenty-four. Few, if any, in 
modern times, have reached so high a distinction in the Church so early 
in life, and fewer still have borne those honors so creditably both to 
himself and the Church. 



Christopher Rush. 



BY BISHOP S. T. JONES. 



"He lives nobly who lives for man, 
Because he lives for God." 

A GIANT in intellect, of great moral courage, of a strong and deter- 
mined will, and of vast powers of physical endurance, with a fair 
share of acquired ability, Christopher Kush was fitted to be at once 
a bold and dauntless leader, a rigid disciplinarian, an energetic and 
untiring worker, and an eminently useful man. He was born in 
Cravens County, North Carolina, February 4, 1T77, and inherited a 
considerable share of the genial warmth of soul and ardency of spirit 
characteristic of the people of that section. Embracing Christianity 
at the early age of sixteen, at a period of our national progress when 
simple habits, correct deportment, and aversion to licentiousness, were 
marked features in almost every community, and more especially so 
in rural districts, he may be said to have scarcely known, much less to 
have been familiar with, most of the vices of our present times so 
beguiling to youth, and so frequently disastrous to its most brilliant 
prospects. Indeed, one possessed of such remarkable firmness and 
decision of character as was Bishop Rush, having once set out to com- 
pass any commendable object, would hardly be turned aside from his 
purpose even in this day of degeneracy. But confronted by compar- 
atively little opposition, and surrounded by so many incentives to a 
pure and spotless life, he made rapid progress in the faith he had 
espoused. 

Manumitted, or purchased through his own industry or by the 
benevolence of his friends, he moved to New York city in 1798 ; 
where, untrammeled in mind, he was able to investigate more thor- 
oughly with a view of determining his future course in life. Famil- 
iarizing himself with the teachings, doctrines, and philanthropic views 
of the venerable founder of Methodism, whom he held in the highest 
esteem, he witnessed with alarm the innovations introduced by the 



688 Methodist Bishops. 

dominant adherents to his religious tenets in America, especially 
with reference to the Christian equality of the races. Deeply im- 
pressed with the truthful, manly, and God-like utterances of the 
Declaration of American Independence, then fresh from the almost- 
inspired pen of Jefferson, and seeing these principles so flagrantly 
ignored with respect to his race by the same people for whose justifi- 
cation in throwing off an oppressive foreign yoke they had been pro- 
claimed, so soon after their own Heaven-secured deliverance, his soul 
was roused to righteous indignation. Satisfied that prejudice born of 
conscious injustice and wrong, and rendered invincible by large promise 
of mercenary gain, having already taken firm hold on the American 
heart, would present most formidable resistance alike to the humani- 
tarian and the Christian, whether in Church or State, he placed him- 
self squarely on the side of the unfortunate and victimized; here, 
armed with Wesley's publicly expressed view that '' American slavery 
was the sum of all villainies," he enlisted with all his masterly pow- 
ers of mind and soul against its principles and practice, whether fos- 
tered by doubtful and ambiguous phrases in the Constitution, or toler- 
ated by the connivances of Church authorities. That his position on 
this subject, and all else affecting the interests of the masses of his 
race, might be the more conspicuously known, he united with the 
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in 1803, shortly after its 
organization as an itinerant body, where he found kindred spirits hold- 
ing kindred views, both of Church polity and humanitarian principles, 
stoutly battling for the rights of his race, and taking active part in all 
important interests connected with its amelioration. While preparing 
himself, meanwhile, as best he could, for future usefulness among 
them, he obtained license to preach in 1815 ; was advanced to deacons' 
orders soon after, and was ordained an elder in 1822. 

Thoroughly imbued with the sjDirit of evangelism, and recognizing 
the potency and fitness of the itinerant ministry as its most appropri- 
ate and hopeful instrumentality, he had given important aid in shaping 
that plan in the infant connection. With his vast powers of thought, 
sound and reliable judgment, his rich and versatile store of informa- 
tion, and his decidedly Wesleyan training, he had been a most helpful 
associate of Rev. James Yaric, whose subordinate he then was, and 
whose colleague and successor he was destined to be, in determining 



Christopher Rush. 689 

tlie simple but comprehensive forms of our present organization. 
These valuable services had secured for him the full confidence, as 
well as the affectionate regard, of his brethren ; and, as an evidence of 
both, he was elected to the important office of the second Bishop of 
the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in America, in tlie 
second General Conference, convened in Zion Church, New York 
city, in 1828. For four years he shared the honors of the position 
with his senior. Bishop Yaric, but thenceforward, during a period of 
twenty years, he was not only known and recognized as the distin- 
guished senior Bishop of his Church, but was tlie interesting, highly 
appreciated, and important center around whom every interest of the 
Zion Church gathered. Probably no man ever secured a more abso- 
lute control over a people, or exercised it in such complete subordina- 
tion to their most cherished interests. It was, therefore, inexpressibly 
saddening to the Church, for the advancement of which he may be 
said to have literally givenh is eyes, when, from loss of eyesight by 
almost incessant reading, waiting, and exposure, he was comjjelled to 
retire from the active duties of the episcopacy at the General Confer- 
ence of 1852. 

Loved almost to idolatry, it seemed scarcely possible that the won- 
derful man whose voice had been heard for so many years throughout 
the Connection — in the pulpit, in the chair, and around thousands of 
hearthstones, in the faithful discharge of the duties of office as preacher, 
presiding officer, and pastor — should, henceforth, be confined to a single 
place, never to be heard again by most of those who had listened to 
him with ever-increasing interest and profit. The feeling of the Church 
was evidently akin to that which rent the hearts of the hosts of the 
Lord when Moses, their cherished leader, pronounced his last sad bene- 
diction, and took his paternal leave on his departure to Mount N^ebo 
to die. There was, however, in the case of Bishop Rush, a hope 
somewhat consoling to the Church, that they might profit by his coun- 
sel and advice for many years to come. Such, indeed, was the case 
during the tv/enty-one years which intervened from his retirement 
to his final demise. 

Bishop Rush was truly a man of mark. Born a slave, and there- 
fore familiar with the bitterness of that vile system, he labored most 
arduously for its overthrow. God permitted him to hear of its abol- 



690 Methodist Bishops. 

ishment, though never to see, literally, its redeemed victims. When 
the Emancipation Proclamation of the immortal Lincoln was read to 
liim, with uplifted hands he exclaimed, in the appropriate language of 
the venerable Simeon : " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in 
peace according to thy word ; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." 
" I knew," said he, " that the justice of God could not sleep forever ; 
he has called, and ever will raise up men to battle against political 
error, till all unjust laws shall be forever wiped out." " The Almighty 
hath decreed that the universal brotherhood of man shall be fully 
acknowledged by the American people." 

He was also deeply interested in the education of mankind, and 
especially in that of his own neglected race, and took a very prom- 
inent part in the movement for the establishment of public schools for 
the education of colored children in the State of New York in 1812. 

"With a view to the better educational training of the ministry of 
the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church he was instrumental 
in securing a lot of ground in Essex County, New York, for the loca- 
tion of a school, and he did much toward the erection of suitable 
buildings thereon for that purpose. He also distinguished himself to 
some extent as a writer. His treatise, or Short Account of the Rise and 
Progress of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, is a work 
of considerable merit, and is valuable as the only authentic history of 
the Church extant. 

In short. Bishop Bush was altogether a most extraordinary man. 
After a long life so fully devoted to the interests of humanity and 
religion as to induce him to forego even the tender and endearing 
ties of matrimonial alliance, lest he should encounter some serious 
obstacle or hinderance in the work upon which he had set his heart, 
he passed away on July 6, 1873, in the full triumphs of faith, having 
reached the ninety-sixth year of his life. 

As a tribute of respect to the venerable Bishop, a beautiful monu- 
ment has been erected to his memory in Cypress Hill Cemetery, 
Brooklyn, New York. 



William Miller, 



BY BISHOP S. T. JONES. 



VENERABLE in age, but far more so in appearance, with a fine 
manly form rather above the medium height, crowned with a 
lavish head of hair of snowy white, and having a voice w^hose soft 
melody revealed the tender emotions and generous impulses of a kind 
and loving heart. Bishop Miller would have reminded you of the 
sainted John of Ephesus. Indeed, during his life and since his death 
he has been frequently compared to " the loving John," so innocently 
tender, so harmlessly loving, and so eminently paternal was he. It 
seldom falls to the lot of any individual, however distinguished he may 
otherwise be, to possess at once the characteristics of patient, gentle 
love, and of extreme boldness and intrepidity. For purposes known 
to Him who gives no account of his matters in these particulars, these 
opposite qualities are rarely developed to any considerable extent in 
the same person. It is not at all surprising, therefore, that the sub- 
ject of this sketch cannot be ranked as an organizer among those bold 
and fearless pioneer fathers, like Bush and Yaric, who preceded him in 
the duties and honors of the episcopacy, or Galbreath and Scott, w^ho 
were his successors. But if the memory of these men is entitled 
to our veneration because they were great organizers. Miller may be 
as gratefully remembered for his possession and exercise of those qual- 
ities which won the hearts of the masses, and the exhibition of those 
persuasive powers which not only retained them, but also induced 
them to emulate his pious example. Easy of approach — by even the 
most lowly — he was benevolent to the poor and the unfortunate, ten- 
derly loving and indulgent to children, kind ■ and generous to all. 
The rich and the poor, the virtuous and the vicious, were attracted 
by his words, whether in the pulpit, around the hearthstone, or on the 
highway. 

The facts are not positively known to the writer, but from the 
most reliable information at command it is believed that Bishop 



692 Methodist Bishops. 

William Miller was born in Maryland about the year 1790 ; em- 
braced religion in his yonth ; lived in Philadelphia, Pa., tlie greater 
part of his lifetime; united with the African Methodist Episcopal 
Zion Church about the year 1826 ; and was ordained deacon and 
elder prior to 1830. On the death of Bishop Yaric, after the Gen- 
eral Conference of 1832, he became the friend and associate of Bishop 
Push in some important Church interests in Pennsylvania, and in 
view of the valuable aid afforded by him, together with his devout 
Christian life and pious example, he was elected by the General Con- 
ference of 1836 to the episcopal office as the third Bishop of the 
African Methodist Episcopal Zion connection. From this time to 
the hour of his death he gave himself unsparingly to the work of 
establishing the hearts of the ministry and membership of Zion wher- 
ever his influence extended, gently spreading the cement of Christian 
love, firmly uniting each stone in the spiritual edifice, and giving 
shape to the whole structure by his own life, which was a constant 
exhibition of that kind forbearance, sweet temper, and winning loveli- 
ness, by which his entire Christian bearing was distinguished. 

Having faithfully served the Church and his race during a long and 
useful Christian life, and having demonstrated in the most illustrious 
manner the transforming power of Christianity, he departed this life 
after a brief illness — which he endured with patience and calm resig- 
nation to the will of God — at his home in Philadelphia, in the spring 
of 1846, in the full assurance of faith, after an episcopal career of 
only ten years. 



George Galbreath, 



BY BISHOP S. T. JONES. 



GEOEGE GALBREATH, the subject of the following sketch, 
was born in Lancaster County, Fa., March 4, 1Y99. His 
parents, Adam and Eve by name, were the slaves of Dr. Galbreath. 
He was, however, raised in the family of Moses Wilson, of Hanover 
Township, Pa. Possessing a manly spirit, pleasing manners, and 
being of hopeful promise, he was permitted to attend school wdtli the 
children of the family, where, by industry and application, he acquired 
a common-school education, such as the limited educational facilities 
of that section afforded at that early day. He remained in the family 
of this gentleman until a short time previous to his emancipation. 
He subsequently learned the carpenter's trade with John Miller, of 
Lancaster County, and worked at his trade in the employ of this gen- 
tleman for a considerable while, both in Pennsylvania and in Mary- 
land. He also learned the cabinetmaker's trade with John Okey, of 
Middletown, Pa., where, in 1826, he experienced a change of heart 
and life while attending a Winebrennarian meeting. But, having 
familiarized himself with the simple and forcible doctrines of the 
Bible as taught by Wesley, he connected himself with the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, where he remained an active, earnest Christian, 
until Rev. Jacob J). Richardson organized a society there of the African 
Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, when he w^as enrolled among its 
members, and shortly after received preacher's license. 

Growing in influence and usefulness, and discovering thus early a 
singular aptness to instruct the less informed of his brethren in the 
great truths of the Scriptures, he was recommended by the Church 
as one eminently fitted for the work of an itinerant minister, and was 
received as such in the Philadelphia yearly Conference of his recently 
adopted Church in June, 1830. Thus fully entered upon the work of 
the ministry, his industry and faithful devotion so commended him to 

the confidence and favor of his elder brethren that he was elected 
40 



694 Methodist Bishops. 

and ordained deacon in the Conference session of 1832, and elder in 
that of 1835. Starting out from this point with increased responsi- 
bilities, but with great zeal, and a constantly growing usefulness, he 
was prominent in all the important interests of the Church, distin- 
ffuishino^ himself alike on the floor of the Conference and in the 
more special duties of the pastorate. Whether as an efficient scribe, 
an able debater, or a valuable committee-man, in the former, or as a 
wise governor, an earnest and devoted pastor, or an able defender of 
the doctrines, principles, and usages of our common Methodism, in 
the latter, he was a most reliable and trustworthy minister, and con- 
tributed immeasurably to that buoyancy of spirit and unwavering 
hope and faith which sustained the humble band of brethren with 
whom he was identified, amid the trying scenes through which they 
passed during that period. 

Having, by his superior mental powers, now vastly improved by 
study and applica^tion, forced his way to the forefront of leadership 
among his brethren — and having, by his affable manner and manly 
Christian bearing, won his way into their confidence and affection — he 
was nominated by the proper committee selected by the General Con- 
ference, assembled in the parent church of the organization in the 
city of ISTew York, in May, 18-18, and elected by that body to the 
Episcopal office ; thus becoming the fourth Bishop of the African 
Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in America. His knowledge of the 
rules governing deliberative bodies ; his careful study of the peculiar 
genius of Methodism ; his minute survey of the entire field of opera- 
tion over which the Church had extended its fostering care ; together 
with his pleasing address, accommodating disposition, and gentle- 
manly and dignified bearing, and his remarkable firmness and decision 
of character, and promptness and dispatch in the execution of busi- 
ness, rendered him more distinguished, if possible, as a presiding 
officer than he had been as a subordinate pastor. His rapid move- 
ments and general visitations through the entire connectional field, 
cheering the ministry and encouraging the Churches, endeared him 
alike to pastor and flock, rendering him, deservedly, a great favorite in 
the popular esteem. His episcopal career, though distinguished for its 
brilliancy and beneficial results, was destined to be short. 

Yielding to the inevitable consequences of a life of unremitting 



Geouge Galbreath. 695 

toil, and a life burdened with the anxious cares imposed by i^overty, 
and a constitution broken by the severe hardships and privations of 
eighteen years of itinerant pioneership, it was painfully apparent quite 
early in his new and trying position that he was to be menaced by 
disease which must seriously impair his usefulness. Battling with 
these infirmities w^th the same heroic determination with which he 
had encountered the toils and trials of his earlier life, he persevered 
with an unabated zeal, discharging the numerous and varied duties of 
his office, and rallying like a great leader the hosts of the Lord, until 
death arrested him in the very midst of his labors in little less than 
five years after his election to the Episcopacy. 

It may be justly said of Bishop Galbreath by those intimately 
acquainted with him, as was the writer of this humble tribute to his 
memory, that but few men ever presented more strikingly interesting 
features of character. Remarkable for his powers of mind, he was 
not less remarkable for his physical endurance, which enable him to 
travel on foot circuits of from one hundred and fifty to three hun- 
dred miles in length, laboring with a frequency, zeal, and success, 
truly wonderful. Animated with the cheering hope of adding stars 
to his Master's crown, he was no more untiring in his efforts in the 
pulpit than out of it ; whether in the family circle, the public inn, or 
by the way-side. Domestic infelicity added greater trials to his min- 
istry than disease or poverty. He was thus beset in his ministerial 
career with a succession of troubles following him into his later life ; 
but he seldom complained, and even then, with such charitable ex- 
pressions as to reveal a patience and resignation truly enviable. In 
liis pulpit efforts during the early part of his ministry, thougli dis- 
playing at times singular powders of eloquence, he was so possessed of 
an uncontrollable stammering in his speech that his hearers often lost 
the impressiveness and otherwise good effect of his discourses. For 
years he struggled against this impediment. But, strange to say, by a 
very extraordinary circumstance, the hinderance was suddenly and 
permanently removed. His fast friends and yoke-fellows in the miii- 
istry were Revs. Jacob D. Richardson and Samuel Johnson, most 
gifted and powerful preachers of the same Church. Tlie latter was 
especially endeared to him by many kind offices and tender ties. Mu- 
tually sharing the toils, cares, and privations of the itinerancy in their 



696 Methodist Bishops. 

friendship, they were much like David and Jonathan. Kecessarily 
bold and aggressive, thev were men of courage, but no more of cour- 
age than faith. Struck with the similarity of their own rugged life 
experiences and those of the prophets Elijah and Elisha, they were 
not only much together, but induced to enter into an agreement and 
covenant to pray that the free speech of the elder should become the 
possession of the younger of the two men, if not while he lived, then 
as an inheritance when he died. The agreement was often remem- 
bered in their devotions, and was a matter of much faith between 
them, but no perceptible improvement came to the utterance of 
Galbreath. 

At length death came, releasing Johnson suddenly from his labors, 
and Galbreath was as suddenly relieved of his stammering. Though 
more than a hundred miles away from the scene of the death of his 
co-laborer, and all unconscious of his sudden illness, Galbreath was 
instantaneously seized by an uncontrollable power which prostrated 
him to the earth. Recovering from the effects of the unaccountable 
shock, it was not until several days had elapsed that he learned, by 
mail, that his friend had died at the very moment he was thus strangely 
prostrated. His next pulpit effort revealed the fact, not less to the 
astonishment of his hearers than to himself, that God had honored 
their simple faith — the mantle of his gifted, but now departed, brother 
in Christ had rested on him. 

Thenceforward to the day of his death George Galbreath was not 
only possessed of an unexceptionable delivery, free from all impedi- 
ment, but for depth of thought, clearness of scriptural views, sound- 
ness in doctrine, and entrancing eloquence, that made him a marvel 
to his audiences and to himself. 

The following summary of his character and life is taken from the 
very excellent memoir which has been published : 

As a man, Galbreath possessed a vigorous, active, firm, and benevolent mind. 
In promptitude of conception and readiness of utterance few were his equals. 
He was, in an eminent degree, a man of undaunted spirit; the firmness of his 
niind was a leading trait, a prominent feature, of his whole character. It enabled 
him in all the vicissitudes of life — and he was familiar with them — to maintain 
an. equanimity of conduct which seemed to flow from the fortitude of the phi- 
losopher, mingled with the patience and resignation of the Christian, 



George Galbreath. 697 

As a Imsband, father, brother, and friend, he was singularly indulgent, ten- 
der, and affectionate ; but his benevolence was not confined to these limits, it led 
him to be, in a peculiar manner, the friend of the oppressed; he espoused their 
cause and advanced tlieir interest with the warmest zeal. It was his benevolent 
temper, likewise, which rendered him so highly esteemed by almost every denom- 
ination of Christians, and which disposed him to unite an extensive charity for 
those who differed from him in matters of faith or opinion, with an earnest con- 
tention for what he esteemed the truth. Benevolence was, indeed, a shining part 
of his character; he took an exquisite pleasure in communicating or increasing 
happiness whenever and wherever he had opportunity. His desire and study was 
to do all possible good to mankind in general, yet, without breaking in upon his 
plan, some were the objects of his more peculiar attention. 

As a scholar, he was considerably distinguished. He early discovered a thirst 
for knowledge. Original genius was peculiarly his attribute. There was no 
limit to his cuiiosity. His inquiries were spread over the whole field of nature. 
The study of man seemed to be his delight, and if his genius had any special 
bias it was in discovering those things that made men wiser and happier. In 
short, he had tlie whole volume of nature as his field of research, and he dili- 
gently pursued it. 

.As a Christian, he shone conspicuously. The spirit of the Gospel seemed to 
have tinctured his whole mind, and to possess a constant and powerful influence 
on his heart. He was truly and remarkably an example of the life of God in 
the soul. His faith in the divine promises was strong, active, and vigorous, 
being conscious of having endeavored to the best of his ability to perform the 
conditions on which they are suspended. With such faith and resignation as 
this he went on from year to year promoting the glory of God, advancing the 
happiness of his fellow-creatures, and performing the duties of his calling, till 
at length, having perfected his work, and being ripe for immortality, God was 
pleased to translate him from the wilderness of this world to the city of the 
living God. 

As a preacher, he was indefatigable, evangelical, and successful. He was 
remarkably animated in his public addresses, and generally pojiular. An inti- 
mation that he was to preach was the sure signal for a crowded auditory. His 
manner was always warm and forcible, and his instructions eminently practical. 
He had a talent for touching the conscience and seizing the heart, almost peculiar 
to himself. 

Arriving at Philadelphia, Pa., in March, 1853, after an extended 
episcopal visitation through a large portion of the connectional field, 
preaching often, and exposing his already shattered constitution to the 
vicissitudes of winter's severities in the region of the Alleghany 
mountains, he fell almost a martyr to the cause of God and the 



098 Methodist Bishops. 

interest of his lowly people. He died of asthma, after a brief but 
painfully severe illness of a few weeks ; his physician declaring that 
he had literally " blown out his life in the ministry." On being asked 
by an old companion in the ministry — Rev. David Stevens — as to his 
prospect of heaven, he expressed strong confidence in God, repeat- 
ing those blessed words of Job, "I know that my Eedeemer liveth." 
" I am nothing," said he, " as one thrown among the rubbish ; yea, a 
crumb, but God will magnify that crumb." Shortly before death he 
cried out — these were his last words — " I am standing in the midst 
of Jordan ; I have let the world go, and I have my right hand on 
eternity." 

After a brief silence the tall, manly form of Bishop Galbreath 
lay motionless in death ; the spirit which had animated it over half a 
century, had winged its way to God ! 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF CANADA. 



THE first society was founded in Canada, at Augnsta, in 1Y78, num- 
bering among its first members Paul and Barbara Heck, and 
Catherine Lawrence, (formerly Mrs. Philip Embury,) who were mem- 
bers of the first Methodist Church organized in the United States in 
1766. The first Conference pastor was William Losee, sent by the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States, in 1791 ; first class 
organized in Kingston Circuit, February 20, 1791. The first Confer- 
ence was organized at Hallowell, August 25, 1824. The Methodist 
Episcopal Church in Canada, (by friendly separation from the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church in United States,) was organized October 
2, 1828, and contained 4 districts, 48 traveling preachers, 7 superan- 
nuated preachers, and 32 circuits, with a total lay membership of 
9,678. In 1832 the Canadian Conference, by vote, passed under the 
officiating jurisdiction of the British Wesley an Conference, and 
adopted the general polity of that body. This gave offense to many, 
and resulted in a Conference, in 1834, of the opposers of that union, 
at which the resolution to remain in and reorganize the Methodist 
Episcopal Church was adopted. The number remaining and uniting 
in the reorganization embraced 14 preachers and 1,100 lay members. 
The Methodist Church of Canada, embracing the Wesleyan and 'New 
Connection bodies, was organized into a jurisdiction separate from 
the British Churches in 1874. The latest official statistics, up to 1882, 
showed a total of three Annual Conferences, 272 intinerant ministers, 
255 local preachers, and 27,402 lay members. 



John Reynolds. 



BY EEV. T. WEBSTEK, D.D. 



■p EY. JOHN KEYXOLDS, first Bishop of the Methodist Episco- 
-Ll^ pal Church in Canada, was boi-n February 9, 1786, in or near 
the place where the city of Hudson is now built, in the State of JSTew 
York. 

His childhood was spent on the beautiful banks of the magnificent 
Hudson. Here his parents continued to reside until their son John 
was about ten years of age. He and the other children of the family 
acquired such elementary education as the schools of that period 
■afforded. 

In 1796 the father of young Keynolds decided on removing his 
family to Western Canada. He was induced to take this step by 
Governor Simcoe, of Canada, who promised him that if he would go 
to the western part of Upper Canada, and locate a certain number 
of families in the township of Dorchester, that he (Rejmolds) should 
have the remaining portion of the township for himself. This flatter- 
ing promise caused Mr. Reynolds, and several of his neighbors through 
his representations, to leave comfortable homes along the banks of the 
Hudson River, to brave all the privations and dangers of a forest life 
in the then vast wilderness of Western Canada. 

At this early period a journey to Tipper Canada was no small 
undertaking, even from the Hudson. What now can be accomplished 
in a few hours in a railroad car, would then often require days of 
toilsome traveling, and especially so when the company was largely 
composed of women and children. But those were the days of heroic 
enterprise and endurance with emigrating bands, and among the 
pioneer Methodist preachers who followed them to their wilderness 
homes. The Reynolds family and their fellow emigrants shared in 
this spirit of the times, and, undaunted by the dangers to be encoun- 
tered by the way, they turned their backs on their old homes and 
pressed onward to make new ones in the distant wilderness. 



John Eeynolds. 701 

The removal to Canada having been decided on by Mr. Reynolds 
and his party, they secured a sufficient number of open boats to con- 
vey themselves, their families, and luggage to the then far west. On 
the day appointed for their departure our emigrants, having em- 
barked, began to ascend the Hudson, propelling their boats with oars, 
and thus they made their way to Schenectady. Here was the start- 
ing point from the Hudson for Lake Ontario. 

The route of transit used by the old colonists for nearly a century 
on their way from New York to Upper Canada was this : The Hud- 
son River was used from Manhattan, now Isew York, to Schenectady. 
Thence up the Mohawk to Fort Stanwix, where the city of Rome is 
now situated. Here was a short portage to Wood Creek, or, as it is 
now called by some writers, Norval Creek. Thence along the wind- 
ings of this stream into Oneida Lake, then through the lake to Three 
Rivers Point, and then down the Oswego River to Lake Ontario, and 
then along the lake, keeping near the shore, until the nearest spot to 
their destination accessible by water had been reached, and it became 
necessary to take to the bush in order to reach the destined home in 
the inland wilderness. This was the route taken by Mr. Reynolds 
and his associates, keeping to the water till they arrived at the head 
of Lake Ontario, and then westward through the woods to the wilder- 
ness of Dorchester, on the eastern branch of the river Thames, about 
eight miles from the present city of London. This tedious and diffi- 
cult journey, beset with imminent dangers, as w^ill be seen hereafter, 
occupied over two months in the part of it accomplished by Avater, 
namely, from the Hudson to Burlington Bay at the head of Lake 
Ontario. The same journey may now be made in less than a day and 
a night, in a comfortable railroad carriage. 

As already stated, the little fleet of open boats had hard toiling up 
the rivers, and were obliged to keep near the shore wdien on the 
lakes. To venture far out into the lake would have been an experi- 
ment likely to be attended with danger. If a storm had arisen the 
boats would have been in danger of being swamped, and all on board 
would probably have found a watery grave. But there was another 
reason for keeping near the shore when on the lakes ; it was this : that 
at night the voyagers had to go on shore, unload, and haul their boats 
up out of the water and turn them upside down in order to make a 



702 Methodist Bishops. 

shelter for the protection of their respective families in case" of a 
storm. This was a slow and laborious method of traveling, to say 
nothino' of the discomfort and exposure of the famihes. To be able 
to run into a small bay or into the mouth of a stream when the boats 
were in danger from a storm, or to secure a night's rest, it may be 
imagined, Avas a very agreeable circumstance. But this was not 
always possible of accomplishment without hard work and experienc- 
ino- great danger to life and property. To get on shore was often out 
of the question, because of the high banks ; and then the mouth of a 
creek or river into which tliey could run, and be relieved from the 
necessity of remaining in the boats all night, became a very desirable 
sio^ht. 

UpoD one occasion, while our voyagers were passing up the south 
shore of Lake Ontario on their way from Oswego, the most imminent 
danger threatened them. The morning was fine, and every thing, to 
human appearance, betokened a delightful day. The boats put out to 
the lake as usual, after a not only frugal, but rather scanty repast — for 
the party was not unfrequently hard pressed for a sufhciency of food, 
having to depend in part for a supply for their larder upon the waters 
and the woods. On. the morning spoken of, as they proceeded on 
their way, they perceived a long point of land stretching far out into 
the lake. To pass around the point skirting along the shore on both 
its sides would have cost them much time and labor. They therefore, 
calculating upon the continuance of the fine weather of the morning, 
determined to put out into the lake and make directly for the ex- 
tremity of the point. But ere they had reached it the clouds gathered 
blackness, and went dashing along the heavens, while the muttering 
thunders Avere heard in the distance. The wind began to blow furi- 
ously, and the "white caps'' to break against and over the bows and 
sides of the boats, soon making them almost unmanageable. The 
lightnings flashed along the inky sky, followed by booming thunders ; 
and soon the rain came pouring down in torrents. The oarsmen 
were rowing hard to make the land, " but the sea wrought, and was 
tempestuous against them." The hearts of strong men quaked. It 
was, however, no time to yield to fears. Steadily and skillfully they 
plied their oars, realizing that the lives of the entire company de- 
pended, under God, upon their exertions. 



John Reynolds. T03 

The point was neared, when a small bay was seen which gave hope 
of safety. The hope inspired new courage and lent fresh vigor to 
their weary arms. Another and a fiercer struggle with tlie angry 
waves, and the boats with their precious cargoes were safe within the 
sheltering haven.. 

But the family of Mr. Eeynolds had nearly perished from the 
quantity of water that had accumulated in their boat. It came to 
land in a sinking: condition. All were drenched and well nio^li ex- 
hausted. Mrs. Reynolds and her son John proved to liave suffered 
the greatest injury, for long years after that day of peril and exposure 
the effects were seen and felt on the health of the mother and son. 
But sick and wet and weary though they were, they had no roof to 
shelter them, no comfortable couch on which to rej)ose, and but a 
small allowance of food to sustain their flagging energies. 

After spending a day or two for rest and drying their clothing 
and goods, they again put to sea and coasted along the lake shore, as 
they had been accustomed to do before the "stormy morning" that 
had so nearly terminated their voyage and launched them all into 
eternity. 

Bishop Reynolds, once passing down the Lake Shore Road in a car- 
riage with the writer of this brief sketch, to attend one of the Annual 
Conferences, related the above perilous incident of their voyage with 
expressions of devout thankfulness to God who had so wonderfully 
delivered himself and his fellow-voyagers from the dangers of the 
deep. There was a work for Mr. Reynolds to do in coming years, 
and his heavenly Father preserved his life that he might do it. 

On arriving at the western part of Burlington Bay, at the head of 
Lake Ontario, where the city of 'Hamilton is so beautifully situated 
between the mountain and the bay, the Reynolds family, with the 
whole company, resolved to rest for a few days before encountering the 
fatigues of the forest road, or, rather, path. Their way along the waters 
had been toilsome and dangerous, but the wilderness had now to be 
entered, and its dangers and privations to be grappled with and over- 
come. They had one comfort, at least, after their late experiences, 
that now they had terra jirina beneath their feet — always excepting 
the swamps, marshes, etc. 

Young Reynolds, the subject of our sketch, and his mother, were 



704 Methodist Bishops. 

still ill, and for their convenience, and that of other feeble members 
of tlie party, oxen had to be procnred from the settlements nearer the 
Xiao;ara Kiver, so that the sick and the children unable to walk might 
be conveyed on ox-sleds drawn along the bare gronnd. The travelers, 
however, f onnd it impracticable- to continue their journey at that time 
as far as Dorchester ; they therefore stopped in a small settlement 
in the township of Burford, where the Reynolds family remained 
till 1803. 

The company now scattered and located themselves in other places, 
some of them never afterward seeking to obtain their promised land 
anion o- the towering pines of Dorchester. The dreams on the banks of 
the Hudson of large estates in Canada were never realized. The far- 
off fields that looked so green in the distance to the fancy of the elder 
Mr. Eeynolds and his adult companions, when inspected more nearly, 
were found beset with so many difficulties that it required years of 
preparation before they could be used to any advantage — even entered 
upon with their families. So the world, without the salvation of Christ, 
is a poor inheritance. It is often like a broken reed ; there is no de- 
pendence to be placed upon it, no permanent good to be derived 
from it. 

But while our emigrating party in search of earthly good were 
obliged to come to a halt through failure to procure the necessary 
supplies for proceeding farther, the indefatigable " circuit-rider," with 
his faithful horse and indispensable saddle-bags, was on their track. 
Mr. Reynolds remembered Methodist preachers visiting the settlement 
in Burford during the stay of his father's family there. 

James Coleman was on the Niagara Circuit in 1799, and Joseph 
Sawyer in 1800. These ministers, it is quite probable, visited Bur- 
ford settlement and other parts in the then West. 

In 1801 Joseph Jewell and Samuel Draper were appointed to 
Upper Canada. This wide circuit was evidently designed to reach 
the outskirts of civilization. It did not embrace the Niagara Circuit 
of the previous years, that being still continued as a distinct charge. 
From some one, if not from all, of the above-named gospel mes- 
sengers, young Reynolds had an opportunity to hear the word of 
life. He was moral, but not religious. His heart was tender, but 
not cleansed from sin. In this position he continued for some time, 



John Reynolds. 705 

lioping and fearing, and sometimes longing, for the redeeming power 
of divine grace. 

In December, 1801, Nathan Bangs, who was that year travehng 
mider the Presiding Elder on the Niagara Circuit, extended his labors 
west of the Grand River, visiting Burford and Long Point, and even 
pushing his way into Oxfoi'd. On some one of these visits young 
Reynolds heard him preach, and became convinced of his sinful con- 
dition, and alive to the importance of his soul's salvation ; and some 
time afterward, under the labors of Mi\ Bangs, the awakened youth 
was enabled to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as his great Re- 
deemer. 

In 1803, or early in 1804, the Reynolds family proceeded to their 
originally-designed destination, Dorchester township. They settled 
an the banks of the Thames, just where a delightful stream emptied 
its limpid waters into the river. Here was an excellent mill site. 
The stream had sufficient water for mill purposes, and was of 
steady flow. Here they commenced business, but as old Mr. Reyn- 
olds could not induce the requisite number of settlers to take up 
lands among the Dorchester pines to meet the conditions of Gov- 
ernor Simcoe's proposal, the expectations founded upon that pro- 
posal, and which had led Mr. Reynolds to bring his family into the 
wilderness, failed of realization. Consequently, after all the suffer- 
ings, privations, and at times absolute want that the family had 
endured, they got only a few hundred acres of land ; and the valu- 
able township passed iiito other hands. The place where the Reyn- 
olds family settled is to this day known as Reynolds' Mills, and is 
only a short distance from the Dorchester station on the Great 
Western Railroad. 

But though the emigration scheme partially failed in bringing 
the advantages anticipated, the Reynolds family had settled in a very 
convenient spot for a resting-place for the weary itinerant, and it 
was not long before they were found out and visited. 

It will be seen, by reference to the Minutes of 1804, that Nathan 
Bangs was appointed to River Le French. The road he had to travel 
lay directly past Reynolds' door. Here and at old Mr. Putnam's the 
preacher used to stop on his way to his charge, and preach to the 
few who could assemble to hear the word of life. The divine 



706 Methodist Bishops. 

message took a strong hold on the- minds of the people, and nnnibers 
were gathered into the Church. John Reynolds had given his heart 
to the Lord before, and now, at his new home on the banks of the 
Thames, he became a member of the Chnrch in which he afterward 
acted so prominent a part, and in whose communion he continued 
till the hour of his death. 

Yery early in his religious life he felt that a dispensation of the 
Gospel had been committed to him, and he soon become very useful 
as an exhorter, prayer-leader, etc. 

Reynolds' sawmill soon became an important institution. It could 
cut more lumber in a week than the settlers would require for six 
months. It was not long, however, before a market was found for 
all the lumber the mill could furnish. There was direct water com- 
munication by the Thames and the St. Clair with Detroit, then the 
largest and most enterprising town of the West. Detroit was by water 
about one hundred and fifty miles from Reynolds' Mills, although 
nearer by the land route. 

The majestic pines of Dorchester were manufactured into lumber, 
formed into rafts, and floated to Detroit, where, at that time, the 
best clear lumber sold for $4 per thousand feet ; sometimes for a little 
more, but often for less money, according to the demand at the time. 
Detroit for many years was furnished with lumber from Reynolds' 
and other Canadian mills. 

In this lumber business John Reynolds was occupied in connec- 
tion with the older members of the family ; but, being always of 
slender frame and more delicate constitution than some of his broth- 
ers, he was often left at home to assist in matters about the mill, 
while his brothers, with such help as they could occasionally obtain, 
got out the logs and floated off the lumber to market. Being so 
much at home, fond of books, and of studious habits, John improved 
the slight education he had had the opportunity of obtaining before 
leaving his native home on the Hudson. His books were few, it is true, 
and his opportunities rather limited, but he made a good use of them 
and improved his intervals of leisure in reading. Thus he acquired 
a respectable education for the time in which he lived. The founda- 
tion had been laid during his childhood at school — slight, indeed, but 
upon this he built industriously both before and after he entered 



John Keynolds. 707 

the Tninistry, and he became '' a workman that " needed " not to be 
ashamed." 

Mr. Keynolds was mild and amiable in his disposition, dignified 
and courteous in his manners, a man of pleasing appearance, with a 
handsome countenance and a fine person somewhat above middle 
height, erect in Jiis bearing, and most scrupulously neat in all his per- 
sonal appointments. By some of the preachers, and not a few of the 
old members of the Church, his neatness and precision were mistaken 
for pride, when they were, in fact, only evidences of his love of order, 
cleanliness, and good taste. 

His consistency of religious character ever after he united with 
the Church, as well as his moral integrity before he made a profes- 
sion of godliness, gave him great influence with his brethren and with 
the right-minded wherever he was known. 

Mr. Reynolds was, at the time of his conversion, about seventeen 
or eighteen years of age ; and the success which attended his early 
efforts in the prayer-circle and as an exhorter, soon pointed him out 
to the Church as a young man of promise. His exhortations at class- 
meeting and at the old-fashioned quarterly meeting prayer-meetings 
soon brought him into notice, and gave him, by common consent, a 
prominent place among the members. After acting his part as a class- 
leader, exhorter, and local ]3reacher for between three and four years 
after his conversion, he was urged by the proper authorities to go out 
into the regular itinerant work. 

In 1807 Rev. E'athan Bangs was appointed to the Niagara Cir- 
cuit, but the Presiding Elder soon found it necessary to send him 
to Montreal ; that being an important charge a man who was in orders 
was required for it, and the Niagara Circuit could be supplied with a 
young man. Thus John Reynolds was called out to supply the 
place left vacant by the removal of Mr. Bangs. Mr. Reynolds, 
provided with a horse, and equipped with saddle, bridle, and saddle- 
bags, according to the usual outfit of the itinerant of the times, 
left his home to take the place of tlie preacher who had been 
instrumental in his own conversion to God. The young man felt 
his weakness and insuflficiency for the work before him, but his 
trust was in Him who he believed had committed to him a dispensa- 
tion of the Gospel, to be promulgated to the people. Bidding a 



708 Methodist Bishops. 

tearful farewell to the faniilj, and especially to tlie fond mother 
who had so tenderly cared for her delicate boy, he passed out of the 
yard, and, turning his face to the east, set out for his circuit, pray- 
ing earnestly as he journeyed that God might be witli liim and guide 
liim in his efforts to lead sinners to Christ. 

On his arrival on the circuit he was encouraged by the kindness 
of his colleagues and his Presiding Elder, Rev. Joseph Sawyer, and 
also by the hearty welcome given him by the members of the so- 
cieties, although some of the old brethren and sisters were somewhat 
exercised in mind by his appearance, thinking that he was a little 
" too much primped up." But his earnest preaching, his affable 
maixaers, and his consistent piety, soon changed this feeling into 
respect for the young preacher, and attention to the message of his 
Master. 

The I^iagara Circuit was at that time exceedingly large. It was 
a six weeks' charge. The rides were, consequently, very extensive, 
the roads bad, the food coarse, and the stopping-places, in many 
instances, were very uncomfortable. Bat the people freely shared 
with the preachers such conveniences as they possessed for them- 
selves, and the latter generally accepted the hospitalities extended 
to them in the spirit in which they Avere offered. This state of things 
sometimes bore rather heavily on the young itinerant. But with 
his Bible to comfort and guide him, his hymn-book to inspire his 
taste for devotional poetry and to aid him in giving fitting expres- 
sion to the praises of God, which he delighted in singing, and his 
Discipline to direct him in Church administration, he went on from 
strength to strength in Zion, doing the work of an evangelist. 

The path of the preacher of those days often lay, for whole 
days' journeys, directly through the forests. They had to find their 
way by marked trees, plunging through deep swamps, and fording or 
swimming dangerous rivers. Xot unfrequently, in such cases, no 
food could be obtained, and the journey would liave to be per- 
formed fasting ; and sometimes the weary and hungry preacher 
would have to spend the night, as well as the day, in the dark and 
cheerless solitude of the wilderness, exposed to inclement weather, 
without any other covering than the vaulted heavens and the foli- 
age of the trees. Such were some of the hardships at times en- 



John Reynolds. 709 

dured by the subject of this sketcli, as also by many others of his 
brethren. 

Having spent 23art of tlie year under the Presiding Elder, Mr. 
Reynolds was, in 1S08, recommended to the New York Conference 
and was received on trial. 

His first appointment from the Conference was to Augusta 
Circuit, Rev. Daniel Pickett having charge of the work. Here, 
as on Niagara, Mr. Reynolds was highly esteemed by the people. 
He was not only a pleasant speaker and a good preacher, but as a 
singer he excelled. He had a sweet voice with a slight quaver in it, 
which peculiarity rather added to its pleasing effect. His melodious 
singing was often more than good ; it was delightful, and had, on 
many occasions, great effect and influence over his congregations. 
Conviction would sometimes take hold of the sinner during the time 
of singing, and lead to his conversion before the services had ter- 
minated. 

It was customary in those days for ministers to occasionally sing 
the second hymn from memory. Both hymn and tune were some- 
times new to the people, who listened with great earnestness and 
edification. Many, at times, would be moved to tears, others to 
prayer, and some to shout for joy. Mr. Reynolds would not un- 
frequently move his audience surprisingly in this way. Those were 
the days among Methodists of singing and shouting the praises of 
the King of kings. 

But the stern struggles of those old heroic times were not always 
relieved by hospitable kindness. The log cabins were sometimes 
shut against the weary circuit-rider, when amid cold or storm and 
darkness he solicited only a place beside the fire, and long miles of 
dreary forests stretched away between that cabin and any other human 
abode. When thus repulsed at one door they went on seeking 
another, and trusting in Him who had " not where to lay his head." 
Such repulses, it must be said, were of rare occurrence ; for the 
early settlers were generally very hospitable to strangers, and espe- 
cially so to the preachers, sharing with them their last loaf, or the 
last ration of fish or venison. 

Mr. Reynolds was, from the first, a good and acceptable preacher, 
always uncompromising in declaring the whole counsel of God, 
41 



710 Methodist Bishops. 

pleasing in style, and methodical in arrangement. He was powerful 
in prayer, and attractive in singing. His voice, though not strong, 
was clear and distinct, and in all his religious exercises he was pecul- 
iarly sympathetic in manner. These characteristics were great aids, 
by the divine blessing, in his success as a gospel minister. Although 
great awakenings attended his ministrations, he was quite as much 
a son of consolation as a proclaimer of the terrors of the law. 
Many of his favorite texts were such as " Comfort ye, comfort ye 
my people, saith your God." 

The prayers and the singing prepared the hearts of the people 
for the reception of the word, which came with power and unction, 
and many an " Amen " and shout of " Glory to God in the highest," 
with glad " Hallelujahs," were to be heard from the old members, 
while penitents were often heard crying for mercy. And while the 
preacher related some touching incident in his own experience, or in 
the life or experience of some one else, the audience would become 
greatly affected, and some old Christian would cry out at the top of his 
or her voice, '^ Lord, send down the power ! " And then would follow 
a loud chorus of amens from a multitude of men and women. The 
preacher's searching appeals and holy ardor inspired the people with 
deep religious feeling, the membership reacted upon the minister, and 
the Holy Spirit touched the hearts of preacher and people with 
quickening power, until the whole assembly was often moved to 
intense ecstatic emotion. Few who have not witnessed such religious 
fervor can have the least idea of the unction and power which ac- 
companied the labors of the early preachers among the people of 
this country. It is no wonder that multitudes sought the . Lord and 
united with the Church. Many who came to mock remained to pray, 
while others left the place of worship affrighted or in a great rage. 
But the word of the Lord grew, and multitudes were added to the 
Church continually. Such were the results that frequently attended 
the services conducted by Mr. Reynolds, as well as by William Losee, 
Darius Dunham, ^N'athan Bangs, Henry Ryan, William Case, Robert 
Perry, and many others who were sent to Canada by the New York 
and Genesee Conferences. These men had wonderful power with 
God and over the people. 

In 1809 Mr. Reynolds was appointed by the New York Con- 



John Reynolds. 711 

ference to the Young-street Circuit. Tliis charge extended north 
from Little York, now Toronto, and embraced the region known 
as Young-street, that being a kirge section of country lying east and 
west of the road called Young-street, which is a great highway from 
Lake Ontario to Lake Simcoe. 

On horseback was the usual method of traveling adopted by the 
Methodist preachers of those days, and generally by all parties who 
were fortunate enough to have horses. To attend the yearly Con- 
ferences the preachers have gone on horseback from their circuits in 
Canada to IN'ew York and even to Philadelphia. The Genesee Con- 
ference was organized in 1810, and all Western Canada was embraced 
within its boundaries. The formation of this Conference was a very 
great advantage to the preachers traveling in this land. 

The Genesee Conference of 1810 was held at Lyons, in the State 
of New York. Here Mr. Eeynolds was admitted into full connection 
and received deacons' orders. He was that year sent to the Smith 
Creek Circuit. In 1811 he was sent, with Rev. John Rhodes, to the 
Augusta Charge, where he had traveled three years previously. 
The long rides, exposed to heat, cold, and wet, together with constant 
preaching and singing, began to tell injuriously on his health, which 
had never been vigorous from the time of his exposure on the lake. 
His lungs seemed weak, and fears were entertained that they were 
likely to be seriously affected. Still he continued to attend to his 
duties. 

He was again returned to Young-street, in 1812, with Rev. Isaac 
Smith. This was a year of severe afflictions to the Methodist Socie- 
ties in Canada. The enemies of Methodism hoped to make it appear 
that because the preachers were sent into this country by the 
American Bishops, that therefore the ]3reachers and peojDle would 
be found to be disloyal to the provincial authorities. But they 
failed signally in substantiating the slander. Xot a single charge 
of sedition was ever truthfully laid at the door of any of the min- 
isters from the United States. Although some of them had to 
leave this country, it was not for any violation of law or order, 
but because of a Royal proclamation commanding all United States 
citizens to leave the country within a limited period of time. 
Ryan, Culp, Reynolds, and several others continued at their posts, 



712 Methodist Bishops. 

keeping the societies together as best thej could till the peace was 
df^clared. 

During the war Rev. H. Ejan stationed the preachers who re- 
mained in the country, and called out others to supply the places 
vacated ; but, as no record of Elder Ryan's appointments has been 
preserved, we cannot now trace Mr. Reynolds' work during the 
war. AYe know, however, from concurrent testimony, that he 
continued to travel, receiving his appointments from Rev. Henry 
Ryan, who was Presiding Elder. All communication Avith the Bish- 
ops and Conference having been cut off by the war, Elder Ryan 
changed and stationed the preachers who remained in Canada as he 
thought best for the interests of the distracted circuits until the 
restoration of peace enabled the Genesee Conference to make pro- 
vision for the Canadian circuits as before. 

The hardships which Mr. Reynolds had to endure while the war 
lasted so affected his health that he ceased to travel as an itinerant 
])reacher about the close of the war. Having previously married 
Miss Mary Gilbert, whose early home was in the vicinity of Belle- 
ville, he settled down in that town ; but he always assisted in the 
work as a local preacher so far as his health would permit. Shortly 
after his location he entered into the mercantile business, in which 
he accumulated a large property. His love for the Church and joy 
in its advancement never abated. He took a deep interest in the 
cause of Indian missions, largely aiding them by his means, ex- 
perience, and sound judgment. He was a trustee of the Grape 
Island Mission property, and in various ways he assisted in the efforts 
being made to rescue the red men of the forest from the darkness 
of paganism. 

The first Canada Conference was held in 1824, at Hallowell. It 
was attended by Bishops George and Hedding, and Rev. John 
Reynolds was there ordained elder by Bishop George, thus proving 
the confidence reposed in him by the Church and ministry. 

From 1824 to 1835 Mr. Reynolds continued his business as in 
previous years, but worked for the Church in a local capacity, con- 
tributing of his means to support the missions, and also in sustaining 
the regular work as well as preaching when his health and cir- 
cumstances would admit. So popular was he among the people that 



John Reynolds. 713 

after the Marriage Act was passed lie solemnized more marriages for 
many years than any other minister in or near Belleville. 

He was re-admitted into the Annual Conference in 1835, and 
at a special General Conference, held the same year, he was elected 
a General Superintendent, and ordained by the requisite number oi 
elders, according to tlie " Discipline of the Methodist Episco])al 
Church," which makes provision for the ordination of a Bishop, 
when, by death, expulsion, or otherwise, there is no Bishop in the 
Church. 

After the Bishop's election and consecration he made ar- 
rangements for transferring his business into the hands of his 
son, and again prepared to enter upon the more public duties 
of the Church. At his election, however, he had made this stip- 
ulation w^ith^ the General Conference, that he was not to be 
expected to travel through the work except as his health would 
allow. 

Plaving an abundance of means of his own. Bishop Reynolds 
not only refused to receive any remuneration for his services, but, 
on the contrary, he contributed liberally to sustain the cause, and 
toward the erection of the Church at Belleville. But his largest 
contributions were given for the erection of our college buildings. 

Shortly after the Bishop's election and consecration it became 
clearly evident that he would not be able to travel through the 
work. His years of rest from itinerant labor had not repaired the 
injury to his constitution wa^ought by his early toils and exposure, 
and it was found that his health would not admit of continuous labor. 
This he realized as forcibly as any of his brethren. He therefore 
urged repeatedly the election of another Bishop, as he found that 
he could not do more than preside at the Annual and General 
Conferences, assist at some of the dedications and anniversaries 
of the Connection, and perform a few other occasional labors when 
able to do so. 

After much deliberation his earnest request was complied w^ith, 
and the Bev. John Alley was elected and ordained to the episcopal 
office in October, 1845. 

After the death of Bishop Alle}^, in June, 1847, and the ap- 
pointment of Bishop Smith to the episcopacy in the same month. 



714 Methodist Bishops. 

Eishop Eeynolds felt himself greatly relieved, and thenceforth he 
decided to require of himself only to attend the Annual and General 
Conferences. This he did so long as he was able to leave his 
home. 

Bishop Eeynolds had one or two very severe attacks of illness 
during the year in which he died, which admonished him that his 
dissolution was drawing near. But he had so long lived in the en- 
joyment of that holiness without which no man can see the Lord, 
that he could look calmly forward to the anticij)ated change as a 
mere recall from an outpost of duty to the immediate presence of 
his King and his God. While on a visit to the city of Hamilton, 
not very long before his death, he became so violently ill that his 
life was despaired of. He, however, was enabled to return home, 
but only to tarry there for a brief period and arrange his temporal 
affairs ; for he never afterward made a journey of any considerable 
length. 

The Bishop's greatest anxiety, as he saw his end approaching, 
was to live long enough to see the college successfully established. 
He saw the commencement, and greatly rejoiced in the accomplish- 
ment of his desire and the prospect of the benefits which he believed 
would accrue from such an educational institution to the Church and 
to the country. 

He set an example worthy of imitation by all, in his constant 
attendance on all the ordinances of God's house whenever he was 
able to leave his home. He took special delight in the class and 
prayer-meeting. His last illness was only of a few hours' duration 
— a brief struggle in the grasp of the last enemy. He died in great 
peace at his residence in Belleville, January lY, 1857, being in the 
seventy-first year of his age and the fiftieth year of his ministry. 



John Alley. 



BY REV. THOMAS WEBSTER, D.D. 



JOH'N ALLEY, the second Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in Canada, was a native of Upper Canada. He was born 
in the township of Haldimand, September 21, 1799. His birthplace 
is now embraced within the town of Cobourg. 

The country along the banks of that part of Lake Ontario was 
then "a vast howling wilderness," excepting only occasional settle- 
ments, where a few isolated families had located themselves along the 
margin of the beautiful lake. But far as these had separated 
themselves from the centers of civilization, wild and even dangerous 
as were the dense forests that intervened between them and the set- 
tlements along the Bay of Quinte, rude and primitive as were their 
surroundings, they were not left very long unvisited by the messengers 
of salvation. As we glance now upon that fair landscape, dotted with 
churches, literary institutions, and stately mansions, and contrast it in 
mind with what it was on the day in which a solitary horseman emerged 
from the woods, and alighting, presented himself at the door of a log- 
cabin, with his saddle-bags on his arm, requested admittance, and while 
enjoying the hospitality of his hosts, entreated them to open their 
hearts to the benign influences of the Gospel of peace, we exclaim : 
Do we not see in that solitary horseman, and in those who followed in 
his footsteps, chief factors in the great changes which have here been 
wrought ? Surely, our country owes much to the Methodist preachers 
who came in here from the United States, hunting up the lost sheep 
in the wilderness. 

The Alley family were among those who enjoyed the ministrations 
of these men of God ; heard them proclaim the necessity of " repent- 
ance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ," and 
learned of them to aspire to "the blessedness of saints on earth, and 
then the joys of heaven." 

These visitations and heavenlv hoT)es were the ^^olden s^leams that 



716 Methodist Bishops. 

illumined many a life of toil and privation among the early settlers of 
Canada. And perhaps in no part of the country did the disagreeable 
concomitants of bush-life press more heavily than along the borders 
of Lake Ontario. And the Alley family were not exempt from the 
hardships and dangers which were the common lot of the early inhab- 
itants of this colony during the latter part of the last century. But 
the determination to succeed in making homes for themselves and their 
families nerved them to brave danger and disregard toil. Persons 
whose homes were distant from Is'iagara, York, (now Toronto,) Kings- 
ton, or Prescott, were often unable to obtain supplies even when they 
had the means to pay for them. And it sometimes happened that 
when the husband and father was obliged to leave the family unpro- 
tected, they were exposed to alarms and even danger from the Indians 
and wild beasts. 

The unavoidable absence of the men would sometimes compel the 
women and children to go out into the woods in search of something 
w^herewith to appease the cravings of hunger ; or, the cows not hav- 
ing come home, a mother or one of her children was obliged to roam 
about through the dreary recesses of the forest, seeking them. 

When a small lad, John Alley, the subject of this imperfect sketch, 
was sent into the woods to hunt the cattle. Being unsuccessful in his 
search, he had gone far into the woods when a slight noise, which the 
quickness of hearing developed by living amid the dangers of bush- 
life enabled him to detect, attracted his attention. Peering anxiously 
about him, he discovered a large wolf creeping stealthily toward him. 
He saw at once that to save himself by climbing a tree was impossible. 
The wolf was too near. To run would be equally vain, and only give 
his cowardly assailant the opportunity to seize him from behind, drag 
him down, and tear him to pieces. The brave boy preferred to face 
the danger. Seizing a dry club that fortunately lay beside him, and 
breathing a silent prayer to God for help, he placed himself against a 
large tree that stood near. The ferocious beast, seeing by the boy's 
movement that it was discovered, rushed forward with glaring eyes 
and gnashing jaws. The courageous boy, with his eyes fixed upon 
his fierce foe, and with upraised club, stood immovable as the tree. 
Just as the wolf seemed ready to pounce, the lad, without suifering 
his fixed gaze to waver in the least, uttered a succession of screams, 



John Alley. 717 

terrific almost as tlie animal's own midnight howls. The wolf halted 
for an instant, watching the attitude of his intended prey, then wheel- 
ing, ran away, and was soon concealed from sight among the tliick 
bushes. 

This was, indeed, a providential deliverance, and through life Mr. 
Alley so regarded it, and was accustomed to speak of it as such. Had 
the wolf approached at his back, or on either hand, he might have 
been torn to pieces, and devoured in a few moments. But in his case 
God's promise was graciously fulfilled, " And the fear of you, and the 
dread of you, shall be on every beast of the field." 

It is a matter of much regret that so little is known respecting the 
early part of Mr. Alley's life. We have no means of tracing him 
after he left Canada, in his boyhood, until he entered the ministry. 

The family removed from Canada in 1811 or 1812, and settled in 
the State of E"ew York. At that time John, the subject of this 
sketch, w^as about twelve or thirteen years of age. 

What influence the visits of the early preachers had upon the 
youth of John Alley, before or after his father removed from Canada 
to the United States, can now be only inferred from the deep rever- 
ence w^ith which he was w^ont to speak of these holy men. ]S"or can 
we ascertain the period when he gave his heart to God and united 
with the Church. These things the writer of this notice has been 
unable to learn, although he has made diligent search in every proba- 
ble direction available. 

We learn from the Minutes that John Alley united w^ith the New 
York Conference in 1830, and was appointed to the Ghent Circuit, 
where he labored during the years 1830 and 1831. 

When the Troy Conference was formed, Mr. Alley fell into that 
Conference, arxd was ordained deacon in 1833, and elder in 1835. In 
1832 he was sent to Leicester charge, in 1833 to Wallingford, in 1834 
to Granville, 1835-36 to Dalton, in 1837-38 to Nassau, in 1839 to 
Lansingburgh, in 1840 to Poultney, and in 1841 to Pittsford. In 1842 
he was transferred to the Black River Conference, and filled that year 
the work at Evans' Mills. In 1843 he was stationed at Rome, and in 
1844-45 at Oswego. 

Mr. Alley visited Canada in 1843 in relation to some matters of pri- 
vate business. While here, feeling a deep interest in the Methodism of 



718 Metpiodist Bishops. 

his native land, lie associated freely with the Methodist people, noting 
carefully and reflectively all that he saw and heard. Finding the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church in Canada in nearly every resjDect identical with 
his own, even to the use of the same hymn book, he felt himself very 
nmch at home while worshiping with us. He also jDreached in our 
pulpits as opportunity offered, edifying the people and winning golden 
opinions for himself. 

IN'ot long after his return a correspondence was commenced with 
him by some of the Canadian preachers. One of these was Bishop 
Keynolds. The result was, that Mr. Alley was invited to come to 
Canada, and accept the office of General Superintendent in our con- 
nection. After consulting leading brethren in his own Church, he 
consented to accept the invitation. With the consent of the proper 
authorities in his owm Church, Mr. Alley agreed to resign his charge 
in Oswego, if elected to the office of Bishop in the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church in Canada. 

A special General Conference was called according to the provisions 
of the Discipline. This body met near Port Hope, October 31, 1845. 
The General Conference having been duly organized, and having 
attended to certain preliminary matters, proceeded to the election of a 
Bishop, and Kev. John Alley w^as unanimously elected. On Sabbath, 
ISTovember 1, 1845, he was ordained to his sacred office by Bishop 
Keynolds, assisted by several elders. The action of the General Con- 
ference in the election of Bishop Allej- gave the highest degree of 
satisfaction to the ministry and membership throughout the Church. 
Bishop Alley returned immediately to Oswego to arrange his affairs 
there, and to make preparations for his removal to Canada. 

He commenced his episcopal labors in a few weeks with the most 
gratifying prospects of success. "Wherever he went the people received 
him with delight, and in nearly every place where circumstances were 
at all favorable, crowds flocked out to hear him. During the entire 
winter of 1845-46, with very slight interruptions, the Bishop continued 
on the wing — or, rather, on runners. Kow preaching to large and 
wealthy congregations in the towns, or rich old settlements, then mak- 
ing his way back to some of our outlying charges to cheer and encour- 
age the hard-worked missionary and the poor people amid their priva- 
tions. Sometimes losing his way, and wandering about in wrong 



John Alley. 719 

directions till obliged to crave tlie hospitality of some lone settler whose 
habitation he was fortunate enough to find when the night was far 
spent. The following brief notice of his labors at this time is extracted 
from the "Genesee Evangelist:" "Rev. Jolni Alley, lately appointed 
Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada, we learn from 
several sources is fairly in the held of his usefulness, flying like an 
angel through the length and breadth of his work, comforting and 
blessing the Church over which he is placed. With the blessing of 
God, great benefit may result from this appointment." 

lN"ear the close of this winter an accident befell him, to which not a 
few of his friends have attributed very serious results. It was this. 
At one of his appointments he was standing for a moment outside the 
church, when an unmanageable horse ran against him, throwing him 
to the earth -upon his right side, and severely bruising the right thigh. 
From this injury, however, he appeared at the time to recover 
speedily. 

In the spring of 1846 Bishop Alley visited five of the Annual 
Conferences in the parent connection in the United States. Toward 
the last of June he returned to Oswego, and packed up a large quan- 
tity of books and some other goods that he had yet in that place, and 
shipped them for Hamilton, Canada West. 

The weather was exceedingly warm. His exertions during the day, 
walking about through the dust and heat attending to the packing and 
shipping of his goods, left him at night feeling weary and exceedingly 
uncomfortable. To relieve and refresh himself he very imprudently 
immersed his feet and limbs up to and above the knees in cold water. 
He felt ill that same evening, as though he had taken a severe cold, 
but did not allow his illness to prevent him from carrying out his pre- 
vious purpose of proceeding at once to Canada. On the journey 
he became worse, his limbs aching as though he had an attack of 
rheumatism. 

During the month of July his suffering increased, a pain located 
above the right knee having become intense. His ardent zeal in the 
Master's cause, however, triumphed so far over physical pain that he 
still preached occasionally. In August he attended and presided over 
the Niagara Conference, held that year on Young-street. On Sab- 
bath he ordained both the deacons and the elders, Bishop Reynolds 



720 Methodist Bishops. 

having been prevented from being present. But these exertions, while 
enduring such violent bodily distress, so completely exhausted him 
that he had to be carried in a chair from the carriage that conveyed 
him to the house in which he was a guest. Yet the next morning he 
was again in the chair, and presided with his usual composure and 
dignity, but without any improvemt;nt in his physical condition. The 
Conference and the membership sympathized deeply with him in his 
afflictions, and all that kindness could do was done by them and bv 
his physicians to alleviate his sufferings, but in vain. Some of his 
physicians advised the amputation of the limb above the seat of 
the pain, but the Bishop could not be persuaded to believe that 
necessary. 

He went to Belleville, where the Bay of Quinte Conference was to 
meet in September, hoping that a few days' rest would restore him to 
a sufficient degree of strength to enable him to perform his duties at 
the Conference. But in this he was disappointed. When the Con- 
ference met, Bishop Beynolds had to preside. During the entire ses- 
sion Bishop Alley was confined to his room, the victim of the most 
excruciating pain. 

Shortly after the close of the Bay of Quinte Conference, Bishop 
Alley was walking from his sleeping apartment into his sitting-room, 
when his foot caught nnder the edge of the carpet ; he tripped and 
fell to the floor. It was then found that the bone at the point where 
the agonizing pain had been so long located had become carious, and 
had now separated. 

He consulted an eminent doctor in Albany, in addition to his attend- 
ant physicians in Belleville. They all agreed that there was no hope 
of preserving his life unless he would consent to the amj3utation of the 
limb above the highest point to which the disease extended. By this 
time symptoms appeared which were regarded by himself and some 
of his friends as indicating that the bones had commenced to re-unite, 
and hope, ever delusive, again beguiled hhn into refusing to part with 
the diseased member. During the continuance of the apparent 
improvement which occurred at this time, he caused himself to be 
removed to his home in Hamilton, going by steamer dowm the Bay of 
Quinte, and up Lake Ontario to its western extremity. On the journey 
the Bishop was quite hopeful that the disease had been overcome, and 



John Alley. T^l 

tliat liis full recovery was only a question of time and care, and lie 
rejoiced in the anticipation of being again restored to active usefulness 
in the cause of Christ. But his hopes were not to be realized, tlie 
seeming improvement was but a pause in the disease, which soon re-as- 
serted itself with increased violence. The winter and spring of 1847 
were spent by the Bishop in such a condition of extreme suffering as 
only the grace of God and the consciousness of his love can make 
endurable with patience. Finally, the powers of his constitution 
having become exhausted, on June 5, 184:7, he passed from suffering 
to rest and enjoyment, having died in the triumphs of the faith he 
so faithfully preached to others. He lies buried in a beautiful little 
cemetery near Wellington Square, there to rest till the resurrection of 
the just. A plain white marble tombstone, erected by his bretliren of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, and bearing only his name, dates 
of his birth, death, etc., and a simple inscrijDtion, marks his resting- 
place. 

Many of the Bishop's friends regretted that he had not submitted 
to the judgment of his medical advisers with regard to the removal 
of the limb, thinking, if he had done so, he might have lived many 
years to bless the Church with his labors and his counsels. But it is 
doubtful whether even the amputation of the diseased limb would 
have saved his valuable life at &o advanced a stage of the disease as 
that at which it was urged upon him. 

The Bishop bore his extremely painful afflictions with the most 
exemplary patience and gentleness, always exercising thoughtful 
consideration for his attendants, ever calmly resigned to the will of 
God, and in the moments of the intensest agony able to say, '' Even 
so, Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight." He was anxious to 
have been engaged in his work in the wide field of usefulness spread 
out before him in Canada, but the Master called him just then to 
suffer, not to do ; and though he had wished rather to do, he w^as 
resigned to suffer the Divine will, and could, in the midst of the fur- 
nace, rejoice in the '' God and rock of his salvation." 

Bishop Alley v/as a man of extended and liberal views, an able and 
effective preacher, and a faithful worker in the Lord's vineyard. He 
was intent upon his Master's business, and very industrious in every 
department of the Church. He wrote largely for the press, both in 



722 Methodist Bishops. 

the United States and Canada, during his connection with the Church 
in this country. 

He was prepossessing in appearance, and distinguished by a mien 
at once gracious and dignified. In person he was tall and straight, 
somewhat dark in complexion, with abundant masses of dark hair, and 
an eye like an eagle's. 

Why he was so early removed from his episcopal labors seemed a 
great mystery to his brethren and friends, but what we know not 
now, we shall know hereafter. 




*\ 



REV PHILANDER SMITH, 



Philander Smith. 



BY BISHOP ALBERT CARMAN, D.D. 



THIS Western World, in its freedom, manifests many new phases 
of Imman life and presents many new aspects of human charac- 
ter. The limited territories and diverse tongues of the nations 
of Europe restrict within a narrow compass the influences that bear 
upon the growing man ; but here, the mingling of races, the ease 
of intercourse, the broad domain, the enlarging prospects, the multi- 
form philosophies and religions, and all under one speech — "the 
grand old Saxon tongue " — form a spirit and develop a man peculiar 
to our own circumstances and times. Though the true man is by 
no means the mere creature of circumstances, but their careful ob- 
server and director, yet certainly no one hath taken his present mold 
of feeling and habit, or formed his line of thought and activity, 
wholly independent of his relations to men and things, that is, of 
liis circumstances. In studying, then, the life and character of actors 
in human scenes, we must faithfully observe the mental, social, and 
moral forces that have borne strongly on them, and had much to do 
in directing their course and shaping their destiny. 

Of these general observations we have, likely, no better exemplifi- 
cation than the career and achievements of the pioneer Bishops of 
Methodism on this continent. They combined in themselves numer- 
ous and diverse elements of power. Educated under the arousing 
influences of their times, they gathered and directed the stupendous 
moral and spiritual forces of the age with amazing strength and pre- 
cision. It was the power from above and the eye single to the 
glory of God and the good of men. Born in Europe, trained amid 
its venerable institutions and ancient civilizations, they caught their 
inspiration in America. Or, born in the United States, flushed with 
the hope and the ardor of the young Republic, they strengthened 
into manhood under the robust polity and institutions of Britain trans- 
planted to Canada. In either case theirs was a noble inspiration. It 



726 Methodist Bishops. 

was a grand opportunity for a holy man, fired witli tlie zeal of the 
apostles, to liave before liim an entire continent open to Christian 
enterprise, a vast domain to be conquered for Christ. Surelv such a 
prospect would have stirred the spirit of Paul. It was bright and 
hopeful and full of divine promise, as when the Macedonian portals 
were lifted to invite the restless apostle to push on with the j)roclama- 
tion of the word of life from the swarming millions of Asia to 
the mighty nations of Europe : to Athens, in her philosophic re- 
finement, and Rome, in her imperial splendor. ISot settled upon a 
small diocese, nor restricted to a perfunctory routine, these pioneering 
Bishops kept their squadron of evangelists abreast the columns of 
immigration and settlement, so that the ring of the ax and the 
crash of falling forests were mingled with the denunciations of sin, 
the invitations of mercy, and the song and the shout of the sturdy 
worshipers. They were not hemmed in by national lines ; they 
were not restrained in their efforts by political sympathies ; but they 
believed the Gospel to be designed for all men, and the commission 
to preach it to be, " Go into all the world." The great Proprietor, 
the universal Lord, had given the authority and set to his seal, and 
how could any man, even any earthly king, fix bounds or interfere ? 
Their noble zeal supplied the short and effective argument : men 
every-where are exposed to ruin, yet they are immortal. God offers 
pardon, peace, salvation, heaven. 

"Salvation I O, salvation! 

The joyful sound proclaim, 
Till earth's remotest nation 

Has learned Messiah's name." 

It was of this spirit and by such men that the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church was planted in Canada. In 1790, six years after the close 
of the Revolutionary War and the ratification of peace, Bishojj Asbury 
sent William Losee as missionary into Canada. Two ,years after 
he sent with him Darius Dunham. In 1802 IS'athan Bangs, of 
the Kew York Conference, who had removed to Canada in 1799 and 
had been converted soon after, accompanied by Pickett and Anson, 
traveled the region about the Bay of Quinte and Lake Ontario. It 
was under the labors of Bans^s, in 1803, that John Revnolds, after- 
ward a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada, was 



Philander Smith. 727 

converted, and, by tlie New York Conference, was admitted on trial 
in 1808. Thus the national lines made no difference whatever in 
the ecclesiastical operations. The Canadian work was under the 
jurisdiction of the New York Conference till 1812, in which year 
it was placed in the care and control of the Genesee Conference. 
During all these years such men as Bangs, Luckey, Whitehead, and 
Gatchell traveled indifferently, according to their appointments, in 
one country or the other. In 1817 the Genesee Conference held its 
session in Elizabethtown, Upper Canada, under the presidency of 
Bishop George. In 1820 the same Conference, with the same Bishop 
presiding, sat at Lundy's Lane ; and again, in 1824, at Ilallowell, now 
Picton. A glorious revival attended the session at Elizabethtown, in 
1817, during which Philander Smith, the subject of this sketch, was 
converted. 

He was born at Blenheim, Schoharie County, in the State of 
New York, April 27, 1796. His parents were of the pure English 
stock of New England, of Puritan descent, members of the Presby- 
terian Church, and very strongly Calvinistic in their religious faith. 
They were decidedly opposed to Methodism, and urged the family 
to shun the Methodists, as they believed them to be influenced in 
their shouting and excitement by demoniacal power. "While Philan- 
der was yet a mere Jad the family removed to Harpersfield, Delaware 
County, in the same State. Here he enjoyed the advantages of a 
school, and learned the trade of harness-making, which he sometimes 
employed to advantage in subsequent life. At the close of the war, 
in 1815, he decided to try his fortune in Canada. Faithfully warned 
by his sincere parents to " shun the Methodists," and particularly to 
" avoid their ranting meetings," he took up his abode in Elizabeth- 
town, near Brockville, two years before that eventful Annual Con- 
ference at which he was converted to God. Settled in Canada, in 
Canada lie remained, and was loyally faithful to her interests, her 
people, and her government till his death ; wherefore he used often 
to say, with that humor that was a prominent characteristic of his 
pleasant life, when he would hear native-born Canadians boasting 
of their loyalty, " These men deserve no great credit ; they are 
Canadians because they could not help themselves. I am one of my 
own choice." 
42 



728 Methodist Bishops. 

On his settlement in Canada lie found that the disturbers of New 
York had come hither also. Not able to get a place of alighting 
without coming in contact with these people, he at length became 
reconciled to take up his liome in a Methodist family. Their domes- 
tic devotions were earnest and quiet, reading the same Bible he had 
always heard, and offering sincere prayer to Almighty God. He ob- 
served for awdiile, and then began to think that the Methodists of 
Canada were not like those of New Yoi'k. As there were no other 
pubhc religious services in the neighborhood, and being warmly invited 
by his host, he reluctantly consented to attend upon the preaching 
of the Methodist ministr}^, which he did at first very cautiously. And 
here, w^hether his prejudices had died out through seeing for him- 
self, or he had become personally more interested, his previous convic- 
tion was strengthened that he had met a different people from those 
against whom his parents had warned him. Somewhat in this frame 
of mind Bishop George and the Conference of 1S17 found him. 

Webster, in his " History of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 
Canada," says : 

'An Annual Conference in Canada was a new and strange thing indeed. It 
was, in fact, an epocli in the history of the Province. Anxiously tlie people 
awaited the day of its commencement, anticipating with delight the pleasure 
to be derived from a visit of the Bishop and the other American preachers whom 
they had never before seen. And many and earnest were the petitions offered 
up in faith by the people of God, that he would be pleased to pour out his 
Spirit, not only upon the Conference and -themselves, but also on such as might, 
from mere motives of curiosity, come to see and hear. Some, more earnest 
even than the others, singled out particular individuals of their acquaintance, 
and made them especial subjects of prayer for some time previous to the sitting 
of the Conference. Among those who had been specially named in these ex- 
ercises was a young man formerly from Delaware County, New York, but then 
residing not far from Elizabethtown. He had attended the Methodist meetings 
a few times before the Conference met, and being desirous of gaining all the 
information he could concerning these strange people, influenced no doubt by 
the Holy Spirit in answer to prayer on his behalf, he attended the meetings 
held in connection with it; and before its close the word had taken such a hold 
upon his mind that he then and there sought and experienced a change of heart. 
He at once cast in his lot with the once despised Methodists, and has since 
devoted a long and honorable life to the promotion of the interests and advance- 
ment of his Master's kingdom. He became himself a Methodist preacher, and 



Philander Smith. 729 

was admitted into the Genesee Conference at the session hekl in 1820, at Lundy's 
Lane, having been employed by tlie Presiding Elder the previous year. . . . 
The Elizabethtown Conference is memorable as a spiritual birthplace, not only 
to Bishop Smith, but to many others still living in the country. The religious 
services on the Sabbath commenced at eight o'clock in the morning, and lasted, 
with but little intermission, till eight at night. There were five sermons 
preached besides the exhortations given. Bishop George delivered a powerful 
discourse, and it is estimated that over one hundred souls were awakened and 
led to seek salvation at this Conference, or immediately after its close. 

The reformation spirit here kindled was not confined to Elizabethtown 
alone, but was carried by the preachers to their respective circuits. Hallo well, 
Bay of Quinte, and Niagara shared largely in the revival influences. So wide 
spread, indeed, was this revival, that, despite the interference of the English mis- 
sionaries, and the opposition of the executive, influenced as it was by High- 
Churchmen and the Family Compact, an increase of 1,624 members was re- 
ported at the Conference of 1818. In few countries did Methodism spread so 
rapidly or take so deep root among the people as it did in Upper Canada prior 
to the coming of the English missionaries. Up to this time the people were 
united, and the work of evangelization made almost miraculous progress. After 
this there were dissension and strife, and a corresponding declension in the 
progress of the Gospel. 

Smith was ordained deacon in 1822, and elder at the Conference 
at Hallo well in 1821:, in which body Bishops George and Hedding 
presided alternately, and performed the ordinations. The presence 
of these two men at this Conference — now called the Canada Confer- 
ence — was but another evidence of the unabated interest of the Meth- 
odists of the United States in their brethren in Canada. In previous 
years, on political and personal grounds, there had been much agita- 
tion in the Societies to effect an entire separation from the jurisdic- 
tion of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Family Compact and 
11 igh-Church party, then dominant in the country, had succeeded in 
keeping from the Methodists the right to solemnize matrimony or 
hold land on which to build their churches or bury their dead. The 
plea for these disabilities was the imputation of disloyalty, cast upon 
men whose very loyalty was the occasion of their settlement in 
Canada. But it was a cry raised against good men for selfish pur- 
poses, and was steadily persevered in, not only till it had effected the 
modification of relationship, in 1824, but also the complete separation 
of the bodies, in 1828. By interested parties it was made to contrib- 



730 Methodist Bishops. 

nte to the overthrow of the episcopacy in 1833, to the niiioii of the 
majority of the Methodists of the Province with the British Wesley- 
ans, and to the momentum of the repeated attempts to crush out the 
minority that firmly held to the episcopal polity and order. Delega- 
tions from Canada appeared at the General Conference in Baltimore, 
in 1824, the one regularly constituted praying for a distinct Canada 
Conference, in proper relation to the General Conference ; the other, 
irregularly appointed, praying for a complete separation. The former 
prayer was granted by the General Conference in these resolutions : 

That there shall be a Canada Conference under ovr snperintendency, bounded 
by the boundary lines of Upper Canada. That a circular shall be addressed to 
our preachers and members included within the bounds of the Canada Confer- 
ence, expressive of our zeal for their prosperity, and urging the importance of 
their maintaining union among themselves. That a respectful representation 
be made to the British Conference of those points in the late agreement between 
the two Connections which have not, on their part, been fulfilled. 

The better to learn tlie minds of the j)eop]e, and establish this 
Conference, Bishop George entered the Province at the east and 
traveled westward to Hallowell, while Bishop Hedding, accompanied 
by Dr. Bangs, crossed at Niagara and moved eastward to meet his 
associate and counselor at the seat of Conference. Surely these were 
measures of a parental solicitude, and manifested a spirit that, had 
it not been for the unseemly and peculiar political strifes in the 
Province, and the personal rivalries in the Churches, would likely have 
preserved on this continent to this day, according to the desire and 
plan of Mr. Wesley, one undivided Episcopal Methodism. 

The year of his ordination as elder the subject of our narrative 
was appointed preacher in charge of Hallowell Circuit. In 1826 he 
was made Presiding Elder of the Augusta District, having as his asso- 
ciates in that office in the Province Thomas Madden and William Case. 
In 1828 his associates were the brothers John and William Eyerson. 
This was the year of the separation of the Canada Conference from 
the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States, and the organ- 
ization, under Bishop Hedding's direction and the action of the 
General Conference, of a separate and distinct Methodist Episcopal 
Church in Canada. This body then proceeded to the election of its 
Bishop, which was fully accomplished. But from the unwillingness 



Philander Smith. 731 

to take a man of their own, and their inabihty to obtain a man from 
the States, there was no acceptance of the office, and, consequently, 
no ordination. Had certain uneasy spirits then been propitiated, or 
had the Bishops elect residing in the States accepted, there is no 
hkehhood tliat the union with the British Conference w^ould ever 
have been a matter of history. But the elections failing to secure a 
Bishop, and the union of 1833 being proposed, under the political 
pressure of the times and the cry of disloyalty hurled at the Episcopal 
Methodists because their organization had come from the United 
States — especially as it was offered under the promise of a liberal 
grant of money — it was eagerly embraced and earnestly advocated by 
many of the members of Conference. It was as earnestly opposed by 
some of the older and more prudent men, who were utterly unwilling 
to relinquish episcopacy and abandon their polity for all the promised 
advantages of the union. Such men were Philander Smith, Franklin 
Metcalfe, James Richardson, and others that might be named. They 
opposed the measure — precipitated as it was by the Conference, even 
without submission to the people for consideration, or to the Quarterly 
Conferences for their action, according to the constitution — through 
every stage of its progress. But when it came to the final vote, and 
the choice lay between concurrence with the union and a divided 
Chnrch, for the sake of a united people and peace, they voted yea. 
Before long they all saw reason to regret this action. Metcalfe 
virtually retired from the ministry. Smith and Pichardson withdrew 
from the Conference in 1836, and in 1837 rejoined the Methodist 
Episcopal Church in Canada — but a fragment, indeed, of the former 
body, and a poor representation of her former strength, but composed 
of laymen wdiose ecclesiastical rights had been violated, and whose 
preferences for the episcopacy were, decided, and of ministers in 
good standing and full orders, and therefore competent to carry the 
polity over the chasm and bear it through the storm. 

Philander Smith was elected and duly consecrated to the episcopal 
office at the General Conference held at Brighton in June, 1817. He 
thus became the third occupant of this exalted place in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church in Canada, having been preceded by Reynolds and 
Alley, as Case was never elected with a design to his filling the 
bishopric, and Fisk, Bangs, and Stratton declined the election. To 



732 Methodist Bishops. 

the duties of this office he devoted the energies of a long and conse- 
crated life, and died at Brooklin, Ontario, March 28, 1870, in the 
seventy-fourth year of his age, and the twenty-third of his episcopate, 
full of labors and ripe for his rev^^ard. It fell to his lot to bear the 
burdens of this office nnder circn instances involving both severe toil 
and continual reproach. We may, perhaps, safely say that Canada 
has been peculiarly the suffering ground of Episcopal Methodism; 
that is, the ground on w-hich men have suffered much simply because 
they were Episcopal Methodists. In solemn conviction of duty they 
adhered to their principles and maintained this polity, when wealth 
and power, in Church and State, were bound to crush them. Their 
principles were entire separation of Church and State in their political 
and civil relations and functions, and the maintenance of the Christian 
ministry by the voluntary contributions of the people. They had 
also the misfortune and the disgrace to have sprung from the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church in the United States, and to bear a similarity 
of name and constitution. To the prejudiced and narrow-minded, of 
course no good could come out of Xazareth ; and, strange to say, 
many that were most assiduous in seeking the friendship of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States were the most 
violent and unscrupulous in their attacks upon it in Canada. Its 
very existence in the Province w^as a protest against measures and 
principles that are at war with the liberties and happiness of the 
people. One can readily see, then, that it would be rudely assailed, 
and that the men who would commit themselves to its leadership 
would become targets for the thick-flying shafts of hatred and scorn. 
And this is precisely what Bishop Smith and those who acted with 
him experienced. They bore a heaA;y burden when they bore it 
largely alone, and fought a severe battle wdien obloquy and opposi- 
tion made up the most of their reward. But many of them lived to 
see the triumph of their principles and the general recognition of 
their worth, and to pass years of a serene age in the light and peace 
of a liberty that their firm stand and bold contention had secured for 
all the people. 

In person Bishop Smith was of good height and a graceful bear- 
ing. As a speaker he was easy, pleasant, and copious. He had a 
keen, discriminating judgment, and was a profound theologian. In 



Philander Smith. 733 

explaining the nice distinctions of Christian doctrine he was a master, 
and as an expository preacher was not, probably, surpassed in his time. 
His forte in the pulpit was to reason of righteousness, justification, 
redemption, and the judgment to come. Yet he could well make the 
impassioned appeal. His ministry was throughout very successful 
and blessed of God, as he ever declared the truth with unction. 

In social life the Bishop was every-where beloved. There was 
always a play of pleasantry in his conversation and a freedom in his 
manner that made him accessible to all, and coming nigh him you 
found a safe counselor and true friend. The smile was not all upon 
the countenance; the radiance beamed forth from the intellect and 
shone out from the heart. He was ever heartily welcomed to the 
homes of his people through all the land ; and many of the most 
pleasant memories of the aged disciples in the Church to-day are of the 
genial and pious visits of the venerated man of God. In his youth 
sprightly and engaging, in his manhood vigorous and prudent, in his 
age cheerful, venerable, and kind, his words are yet the joy of many 
a heart and his example the light of many a life. 

As an administrator of discipline his wisdom and skill were mani- 
fest in all the gradations, of the ministry he occupied. The faithful 
preacher, the successful presiding elder, he graduated into the ef- 
fective bishop. None of his contemporaries were better versed in 
Methodist usages and discipline. From his conversion they were his 
study, and, next to Holy Writ, his delight. He found in them the 
simplicity, the majesty, and the power that the ordinary mind may un- 
derstand, but that only the mightiest mind and the humblest heart can 
adopt and apply in their full force and effect. Here is an unostenta- 
tious yet expansive polity, a quiet yet energetic life, that can unfold 
itself in a class of twelve, or hold together and urge onward a Church 
of millions in all its agencies of pulpit and school and mission and 
press throughout the world. He caught the spirit of this polity and 
discipline. He apprehended its genius and true intent, and admin- 
istered it in love. Herein he had the heart of a true Bishop — the 
primitive, scriptural episcopos. His Conference decisions were the 
utterances of a father, and not the proclamations of a magistrate. 
Given with calmness and deliberation, they w^ere accepted without 
question or appeal. He was a guileless man. He knew naught of the 



734 Methodist Bishops. 

authoritative or dictatorial. If lie erred it was on the side of modesty 
and retirement. Yet he nobly filled np his day of usefulness, and 
accomplished grandly his work. He bravely met all opposition, 
meekly bore all burdens, and has sweetly gone to rest. We look 
upon such a career and upon such a termination of it, as we do upon 
the track of the setting sun. It is the luster of the evening that shall 
be brighter in the dew of the morning. 



James Richardson. 



BY BISHOP ALBERT CARMAN, I>.D. 



THE lives of some men are tlie clironicles of tlieir times ; their 
biography is the history of their people. Leaders in thought 
and word and deed, the masses think but with tlieir minds, and de- 
cide but with their will. The masses but add momentum to the 
moral, social, and spiritual forces that spring in their hearts and in- 
tensify their life. A faithful life of Francis Asbuiy is the review 
of the rise and early progress of Methodism on this continent ; and a 
statement of the career of the Anglican Bishop Strachan, of Toronto, 
would unfold in detail the misrule of the Family Compact in Canada, 
terminating in the rebellion of 1837, the great contest in the same 
Province, to establish a State Church, and the political causes that 
worked the separation of the Methodists of Canada from those of the 
United States, and that subsequently brought in divisions and a 
perpetual strife among that otherwise happy and prosperous j^eople. 
In all these the life of a prominent man is a history of the time. 

And it is j^articularly at the beginning of national life, or at crit- 
ical turns of events, when a few imperial minds direct the course of 
affairs, that it is possible so to view all through the activities of one. 
When society has advanced to wealth and intelligence, and become 
settled in its ways, the work of government is done on the principles 
of the division of labor, and the powers and efforts of even the 
mightiest men are restricted within a narrower compass. At the 
start one man has to do with all and possibly does all. A description 
of his career is, then, all the history you need. But subsequently to 
lind a man foremost in a department of public life and molding its 
institutions, is as much as we dare expect. Yet, in all stages of 
social progress, regal minds will rule. While living, they breathe 
their spirit into the institutions of their land ; when dead, those 
institutions preserve their memory and declare their worth. The 
parliaments, courts, and cabinets are yet demanding the ability of the 



V36 Methodist Bishops. 

statesman, the wisdom of the legislator, the eloquence of the advo- 
cate, and the sagacity of the judge. The Churches and the schools 
are still requiring, yea, more than ever requiring, the profundity of the 
theologian, the breadth of the scholar, and the grasp and clearness of 
statement of the experienced instructor. The great commercial enter- 
]) rises are pressing more earnestly than ever for the boldness and 
energy of the projector and the prudence and skill of the banker. 
Yet, for strength of the individual man and nobility of the individual 
character we must recur to the earlier generations, when there was 
an aristocracy of strength and courage ; when one man was philos- 
opher, ruler, judge, prophet, and priest for a whole people, and led 
them whither he would. 

To such a time in the history of Canada belonged James Eichard- 
son. A detailed account of his life would bring us into contact with 
the most important events in the growth of the country from the 
earliest date to this hour. He was born with the Province in the 
establishment of its Constitution in 1791, and he died but yesterday. 

In 1791 the Constitutional Act was passed by the British Parlia- 
ment, erecting Canada into a colony under the Crown, placing the 
government in the hands of a Governor and Council, and setting 
apart one seventh of the entire lands of the Province for the main- 
tenance of the Protestant religion. These were what were called the 
Clergy Keserves ; and this provision of the Constitution furnished 
the occasion of the most violent and lasting contentions in the colony ; 
the bishops and clergy of the Church of England claiming that they 
were the Protestant clergy, and the only Protestant clergy intended 
in the cliarter. At such a juncture was Kichardson born, and amid 
such scenes and ideas was he nurtured into manhood. And in subse- 
quent years he was one of the most active opposers of the union of 
Church and State, and one of the ablest and most persevering advo- 
cates of the secularization of the Eeserves and the devotion of their 
proceeds to the education of all the people. 

These conflicts settled his conviction and determined his course. 
He could never look with the least degree of allowance on any ten- 
dency of the Church to seek or even to receive public aid from the 
State. A free Church in a free State was the regulating opinion of 
his life in all these relations. Uncompromising voluntaryism', the 



James Ricjiakdsois-. 737 

support of the Gospel by tlie voluntary contributions of tlie people, 
became a part of his mental texture, of his immovable principle and 
every-day thought ; so that nothing would sooner start his indigna- 
tion, or bring the flash to his eye, than any proposition looking toward 
an abandonment or even a modiflcation of it. 

In person Dr. Eichardson was of medium height, but robust 
of Umb and compact in build. Symmetrical in form and vigorous 
in movement, he was a man of strong constitution, and of immense 
powers of physical endurance. Storms and cold he feared not; but 
even in advanced age would put to tlie blush young and healthy men, 
by cheerfully encountering severities of weather they had no disposi- 
tion to face. Always simple in his habits, and using only a plain, sub- 
stantial diet, he maintained a wonderful vitality to the very last. We 
may observe, Jn passing, there is considerable human nature even in 
bishops. 

It was a pleasure to him to rise by starlight on a brisk October 
morning, and in the open air to break through the ice of a tub at the 
corner of his house, and w^ash himself well with the freezing water. 
Fresh air, cleanliness, and light were his medicines. In public and in 
private he uttered many a protest against the closed rooms and dark- 
ened windows of our modern homes. He was ever at war with the 
tight box stove, and declared that people dried themselves out like 
mummies, and roasted themselves to death. " Why," said he, " they 
shut out light and air as though they were their greatest enemies." 
His own bright drawing-room at home was ever a model of comfort 
and cheer, with its large open windows, and in the winter its blazing 
hearth. In his sailor-boy life he learned to love this freedom and 
cheer ; and this sailor-boy joy kept radiance in his heart and home and 
works through all his days. Indeed, he had many qualities of mind 
and heart, as well as his vigor of body, for which credit might be given 
to the effect of the splendid discipline of his youth in the English 
navy upon a moral and intellectual fiber of the first order. A com- 
manding presence, a soldierly bearing, a coolness in difficulty or danger, 
an admirable generalshij), a polished gentility of manners, and the 
keenest imaginable sense of personal honor, showed a noble nature 
well wrought for life's great crises and trials. But with these charac- 
teristics we shall have more to do. 



738 Methodist Bishops. 

James Eicliardson was born at Kingston, Canada, Jan. 29, 1791, 
and there lie passed his childhood. His father was an enthusiastic 
sailor, and had served under Admiral Rodney in his splendid exploits 
on the high seas. The rehearsal of such experiences might Avell fire 
a nature less susceptible than his son's. In this we have a satisfactory 
explanation of two prominent features of the life and character of 
the deceased Bishop : in his youth he was excessively fond of sailing ; 
and he was ever devotedly attached in principle and affection to the 
British Crown. 

On the establishment of peace, in 1784, the elder Richardson came 
to Quebec, where he received an appointment in the king's service on 
the lakes and rivers. This brought him to Kingston, where James, 
of whom we write, was born. As at once the fort and the arsenal at 
the foot of Lake Ontario, and at the head of the St. Lawrence, it was 
then a point of great strategetic importance, and the center of naval 
and military operations on and along the inland waters. Here, amid 
sailors and soldiers, fortifications and docks, barracks and men of war, 
young Richardson passed his childhood, and naturally enough caught 
the spirit of the men who were ever in his eye, and the object of his 
constant admiration. The opportunities of a fair English education 
were, as in all British military posts, at hand ; and were well improved 
in acquisitions that were immensely valuable to him and to the Church 
in later years. He used to say there was nothing noticeable during 
this period of his life, except that he caused his parents much annoy- 
ance, and himself many sore chastisements, by his inveterate pro- 
pensity to dabble in the Avater and sail about in boats. But evi- 
dently a lover of nature, and susceptible of her charms, he was 
drinking in pleasure, and gathering strength of which he was scarcely 
conscious ; for, to his latest day, it was to him a joy, either in fact or 
in imagination, to linger about the bays, and islands, and along the 
shores where the happy hours of childhood were spent. And when 
those scenes and associations became hallowed in his memory by the 
activities of his youth and the struggles of his manhood — when they 
thus became part and parcel of the history of his rising country — in 
this aspect he dwelt on them with rapture, and recounted the advent- 
ures of earlier years with an intehigent satisfaction and a patriotic 
delight. This was his theme : " AVhen we think of what the country 



James Richardson. 739 

then was, and now beliold its wonderful advancement, it seems incredi- 
ble. Its increased facilities of travel and intercourse ; of clmrches and 
schools ! Who could have believed it ? It is a constant astonishment 
to look upon these things. And if I had any desire to extend my 
graciously protracted life, it would only be to see what would come 
next." 

Bishop Eichardson was by no means a querulous old man, but, on 
the other hand, was ever cheerful, hopeful. Ilis time was not passed 
in repining, or sighing that the former days were better than these ; but 
in temper and expectation, like his venerable brother the senior Bishop 
Smith, and like every generous, true-hearted Christian, his years were 
ever tending to a better time. And surely this should be our faith in 
Christianity. 

At the age of thirteen Richardson began sailing. In 1809, at the 
ao-e of eiditeen, he entered the kinfy's service in the marine on the 
lakes and rivers ; and in 1812, at the age of twenty-one, he was ap- 
pointed lieutenant in the navy. The next year he served under Sir 
James Yeo, who had been sent over by the British Government to 
take charge of the fleet on the inland waters ; and for him performed 
the double duty of master and pilot. His courage and address often 
appeared in his perilous cruises upon Lake Ontario, keeping open the 
lines of communication between the East and West. From Kingston 
to Niagara he knew the lake perfectly, and in his age would beguile 
many an hour, and enrich it with instruction, by recitals of pleasant 
or thrilling incidents of the time of the war. To the day of his death 
he loved to meet his old companions in arms, and with them recount 
their dangers and exploits. And in all these he was quick to see, and 
joyful to acknowledge, the good hand of his God concerning him, 
delivering him out of all evil, and directing his feet into the way of 
the divine testimony. 

In May, 1814, in charge of the "Wolf," a ship of twenty guns, he 
was at the attack of the British on Fort Oswego, and had assigned to 
his vessel the difficult and dangerous duty of running in close under 
the fort to cover the landing of the troops. Thrice was the " Wolf " on 
fire with the hot shot from the fort ; and for hours in this dread expos- 
ure Richardson held his men to duty. Here, in brave and loyal 
service, he lost his arm, and won by his coolness and courage in action 



740 Methodist Bishops. 

• 
the honorable mention of his commander and the Lasting gratitude 

and respect of his countrymen. In the record of disbursements made 
by the Loyal and Patriotic Society of Upper Canada in 1815, we have 
the sum of £100 allotted on the 22d of April to Mr. James Eichard- 
son, of the Midland District, with the following note appended : '' This 
gentleman was lirst in the provincial navy and behaved well ; he there 
became principal pilot of the royal fleet, and by his modesty and 
uncommon good conduct gained the esteem of all the officers of the 
navy. lie lost his arm at the taking of Oswego. The Society, in con- 
sideration of his services, requested his acceptance of £100." Subse- 
quently he was awarded a pension by the British Government of 
£100 sterling per annum, which he continued to draw over fifty years, 
up to the time of his death. On his recovery, after the amputation 
of his arm, he again volunteered and served as lieutenant on board the 
" St. Lawrence," a vessel of one hundred and ten guns, guarding the 
coasts of Lake Ontario. Often he used to say it ill became him, a 
preacher of the religion of peace, to think or speak with pleasure of 
scenes of war and blood. Still, there were things about the life of 
the true soldier or sailor he must admire. He was convinced a man 
could be a soldier and serve his God. He deprecated war and its 
misfortunes as earnestly as any one could ; but often it was the less of 
two evils. Rather honorable war, than base, corrupt, or dangerous 
peace. Bad men or baxL measures sometimes can be corrected no other 
way .than by force. Violence must meet violence ; and mighty wrong 
be restrained by mightier right. He respected the motives of the 
colonists in the war of the Kevolution, and rejoiced in their success, 
because theirs was a revolt against unreasonable and arbitrary measures. 
And he as fnlly behoved the Canadians were not only loyal and heroic 
in the war of 1812, but that they were also right. It was ever his 
solemn conviction, often affirmed, that the God of armies was with 
them, helping them against great odds, granting, them signal victories, 
and thus preserving this Northern land to the British Crown and to 
a genuine liberty. In his philosophic reflections tracing effect to cause, 
he regarded that preservation the providential procedure in the over- 
throw of slavery and the slave-trade on this continent. " For," said 
he, " had we all been incorporated into the United States, there had 
been no jN'orthern star to guide the fugitive slave in his flight. There 



James Kiciiardson. 741 

had then been no raj of hope to him, or incentive to attempt 1 lis free- 
dom. There had then been no Fugitive Slave Law ; then no uprising 
of pubhc indignation in the Northern States ; no determination to 
suppress so monstrous an evil; no overthrow of so prodigious a rebell- 
ion." Whether this line of occasion and conseqnence be well traced 
or not, there can be little doubt that the existence of a perfectly free 
and spirited people, like the Canadians on their northern border, at 
once excited the better minds of the great Republic to emulate their 
example, and cheered the lovers of liberty in their persistent efforts 
against the gigantic wrong. And be it firmly spoken and well under- 
stood, that the oppressed slave had no truer or more hberal friend than 
James Eichardson ; nor had the people of the United States in their 
grand struggle to preserve their National Government, so well-nigh 
wrecked in the expiring throes of slavery, any more earnest sympa- 
thizers than the liberty-loving Church of which James Richardson 
was Bishop. Her moral support was ever cordially with the Union, 
and her prayers ever ascended for the success of the national arms. 
Looking at the contest from the outside, free from the entanglements 
of party strife and personal interest, she saw the question at issue 
was liberty or slavery for a great nation ; it was, indeed, the existence 
or the overthrow of the Government — the success or failure of the 
Republic. How could she be true to Christianity, to humanity, to 
universal liberty, and cast in her lot with slavery ? In the nation's 
darkest hours she never forsook the cause of the Union, or despaired 
of it ; for she had the faith that the controversy was of God, and that 
the cause that Lincoln w^as leading on under his guidance must prevail. 
And very much of this public sentiment of the Church was due to the 
generous and discriminating minds of Bishop Richardson and his 
associates in the ministry. 

Early in the war of 1812 he was married to Rebecca Dennis, daughter 
of John Dennis, who had charge of the Kingston docks. By her he 
had several children, all highly educated, and all in honorable positions 
in life. A daughter was married to President Allen, of Girard Col- 
lege, Philadelphia ; and a son, after a most thorough training in Canada 
and Europe, became one of the most eminent physicians of the prov- 
ince, and is now a leader in his profession in the country, and a mem- 
ber of the University Senate. The Bishop survived his devoted wife 



742 Methodist Bishops. 

by several years, and passed them, witliout remarriage, among his 
truly affectionate children in Toronto. 

Having bought property when Toronto was muddy little York, and 
always managed his affairs discreetly, in his age Bishop Eichardson 
had a competence. The sun that had towered in such majesty, and 
declined with such splendor, set bright and serene. One could scarcely 
ask a calmer termination of an active life. In the bosom of his family, 
in the midst of comfort, revered by all. beloved by his people, he 
passed away to his rest. TVith an unslackened faith in Christ, and an 
undimmed hope of immortality, he ascended the skies. The closing 
years of his earthly scenes were favorable to observation, study, and 
meditation, and he retained his mental vigor to the last. His interest 
in all political, social, and religious movements was unabated ; so that, 
having the past by which to estimate the jDresent, it was more profit- 
able to converse with him than to read any book ; and as he was indeed 
the old man wise and eloquent, it was more delightful to listen to his 
descriptions of early times, and his comparisons of the events, people, 
and fashions of successive generations, than to commune with any one 
of a thousand authors. He knew it and felt it, for he had seen it all. 

On the declaration of peace, in 1815, Mr. Eichardson retired to 
private life, and with a brother-in-law tried store-keeping at Point 
Frederick, the principal station of the Kingston Arsenal. Soon after- 
ward he removed to Presque Isle, now the harbor of Brighton, on 
Lake Ontario, and was appointed to take charge of the customs there, 
and at the same time was honored, from his known loyalty and dis- 
cretion, with the commission of a justice of the peace. In these places 
of civil authority he obtained a knowledge and an experience that 
were of immense value to him in subsequent life. He was not all 
ecclesiastical, all theological, but had a side to the world, to actual busi- 
ness, to practical life. In his sagacious episcopal administration he not 
only evinced the qualities of mind that his military discipline and his 
commercial training had developed, but showed also a familiarity 
with law — an acquaintance with its bearing and procedure — that aston- 
ished all who did not take into consideration the engagements of his 
earlier years. Preachers are not always the best business men in the 
world ; and in their Conferences would commit some strange blunders 
till the venerable Bishop had corrected them by a touch of his knowl- 



James Richardson. 743 

edge and tact. Many times has it been remarked, that, had he given 
himself to law, he would have made one of the most illustrious orna- 
ments of the bar and the bench. All the more precious were these 
talents when consecrated to the direct service of God. 

In the first year of his residence at Presque Isle, under the minis- 
try of the Eev. Wyatt Chamberlain, of the Genesee Conference of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, he was led to a serious consideration 
of the welfare of his soul. Keared in the Church of England, he had 
always been accustomed to the forms of religion, and ever respectful 
to the outward demands and duties of the sanctuary. But the heart- 
life of godliness, the inner power of faith in Christ, he had never 
experienced. His parents,- lie acknowledged, were assiduous in their 
attention to Church ordinances, but had never learned of conversion till 
his prayers and appeals had been instrumental in arousing them to a 
more earnest examination of their spiritual condition, and the teach- 
ings of Christ and the apostles. Still, these early associations will 
no doubt largely explain Bishop Kichardson's firm attachment to 
the episcopal polity. He had been educated in it. After his conver- 
sion, its possession by the Methodists of the country at the time had 
much to do in determining his Church relationship. And in 1833, 
and subsequent years, when the majority of them had gone over to 
another form and constitution, his mind was ill at ease till he again 
found rest among those that had preserved Episcopacy in its integrity. 
A question may well arise : " Why did he not himself stand firm ? " 
And there may be many. conjectures as to the result, had he and those 
that thought v/ith him done so. His explanation, and theirs, was : 
" They went along for peace' sake." But they always thought they 
paid too much for peace ; for, had they held their ground, they would 
in the end have held the majority of the Church members and the 
Church property with them ; and the deeds that were given in trust 
to the Methodist Episcopal Church would in that Church have 
remained. After three years of reflection, and the most candid exam- 
ination, he settled back again on the old foundations, and was immov- 
able in his convictions as to the orders and offices of the episcopal 
polity. And so he remained to the end of his life. 

Once awakened as to his spiritual condition, and truly convinced 

of sin, for more than a year he sought the evidence of pardon, till, 
43 



744 Methodist Bishops. 

in the autumn of 1818, in a quarterly meeting held in a barn (for 
churches or chapels were then scarce) at Four Corners, township of 
Haldimand, he was enabled to say he felt the spirit of adoption, and 
cried, Abba, Father. Speaking of these times and events, he himself says : 

Thus, under Providence, I became comfortably settled, as I then imngined, 
for life, with a sweet, growing family, and every year increasing my means of 
enjoyment. It is not, however, for man to direct his own steps; a higher power 
shapes his course, and leads him in paths he knows not of. I now approach the 
great event of my life, on which my hopes with regard to the interminable future 
depend. For the first time I heard the Gospel with effect. The subject was 
communion with Christ in the heart, attained by faith. Yielding obedience to his 
calls, I said to myself, while it carried conviction to my conscience, if this be 
Christianity, alas! I am not a Christian, for I know not this. Here was the germ 
of my conversion. Henceforth I searched to know if these things were so. But 
slow^ was my progress. I was sincere in my inquiries, but hesitating in my de- 
cisions. The Gospel has its sacrifices and duties, its crosses and self denials, its 
conflicts between flesh and spirit ; and more than a year elapsed from the time 
of those incipient drawings of the Spirit till I w^as wholly resolved and given up 
to God. But at length the auspicious time came when faith lent its realizing light. 
God shone into my heart, and I saw light in his light. My chains fell off. My 
soul was free. Then the blessed truth, of which my mind had for a length of time 
been convinced, that Jesus loved me, and gave himself for me, came with power 
to my heart. I felt the Spirit of adoption, and cried, Abba, Father. ... As to 
chapels or meeting-houses in those days, there was none for many miles around, 
in all that section of countr3\ Nevertheless, the power of God was there; and 
in the work of preaching and praying the ministers of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, as pioneers, led the van. With this community of Christians I cast my 
lot; and I said, "This people shall be my people, and their God my God." From 
this meeting I returned home, burning to ''tell to sinners round what a dear 
Saviour I had found." 

It will thus be seen how clear was his experience, and with what 
intelligent views he held the doctrines of conversion, of adoption, and 
of the witness of the Spirit. Of these grand l^ew Testament doc- 
trines he was ever a living demonstration and a faithful preacher. 
Always, always, was he warning the brethren against resting in the 
outward form, and urging them to seek the inner power of godliness. 
He was uncompromising in dealing with the ritualism of the day ; and 
till his death he struck steady, effectual blows at the Antinomianism 
of the Calvinist and the Komanist's justification by works. Faith in 



James RiCHAUDSOisr. T45 

Christ, faith in Christ, was his theme, and the sanctification of the 
heart and hfe through the operation of the Holy Ghost. In relating 
his experience of regeneration he loved to repeat Mr. Wesley's words, 
^' I felt my heart strangely warmed." And from out of a full heart and 
a personal knowledge he proclaimed those precious truths through all 
the land. 

From 1819 to 1824 he was a local preacher and steward on the 
Smith's Creek Circuit, as it was then called. The duties of these 
offices he discharged with all fidelity and efficiency. During the latter 
part of this period he gave countenance to Elder Kyan, who was agi- 
tating the Societies to seek a separation from the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in the States, and establish an independent Methodist Episco- 
pal Church in Canada. The plea was the disabihties under which the 
Methodists were suffering ; though, it is said, personal motives were 
not wholly absent from the elder's action. The Family Compact, which 
then had the reins of power, and was set upon the establishment of 
the Church of England as a State Church in the colony, did nnques- 
tionably deprive other Churches of their rights, and urge particularly 
that the Methodists were disloyal and unworthy because of their rela- 
tions to the American Conferences ; but steadiness on their part would 
have as unquestionably vindicated their law-abiding character and 
secured their rights, as satisfactorily shown by subsequent develop- 
ments. However, the agitation was pushed to a separation, and the 
establishment of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada, which 
was constitutionally effected in 1828. The pleas of the memorialists 
were : 1. The state of society requires it. 2. The separation appears 
to be expedient on account of isolation from the General Superin- 
tendency. 3. Also, on account of existing jealousies lately awakened 
by the Government of this country. 4. Also, on account of difficulties 
of bishops reaching the country in event of w^ar. 5. Also, in order to 
secure certain privileges. Whereupon the General Conference resolved : 

If the Annual Conference in Upper Canada shall definitely determine on this 
course, and elect a General Superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal Clinrch 
in that province, this General Conference does hereby authorize any one or more 
of the General Superintendents of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United 
States, with the assistance of two or more Elders, to ordain such General Super- 
intendent for the Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada. 



746 Methodist Bishops. 

Based on this action the Canada Conference at Ernestown, in Octo- 
ber, 1828, with Bishop Hedding in the chair, resolved : 

1. That it is expedient and necessary, and that the Canada Conference of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church does now organize itself into an independent 
Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada. 

2. That we adopt the present Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
as the basis of our Constitution and Discipline, except such alterations as may 
appear necessary from our local circumstances. 

Thus was completed a change, on account of .which several of the 
older leading Methodists often expressed unfeigned sorrow, but the 
reversal of which, they saw, might bring in greater agitation and evil 
than the separation itself. The divisions and calamities that followed 
because of the failure of the Canadians to elect a Bishop were ever 
grievous memories to the sainted Bichardson, and sometimes even led 
him to regret his ow^n action and that of his brethren in giving any 
countenance wdiatever to Kyan's agitation. 

During all these years of secular life in the Church, Richardson 
felt he had a more direct spiritual work to do, a message from God to 
deliver to the people. In September, 1824, he was taken out by 
Thomas Madden, Bresiding Elder of the Niagara District, and em- 
ployed as assistant to "William II. Williams, the preacher in charge of 
the Yonge-street Circuit, including the town of York and the adja- 
cent townships. He says : 

At the ensuing Annual Conference, 1825, I was admitted on trial, and put in 
charge of the same Yonge-street Circuit, reduced, however, by the cutting off 
of the eastern section thereof. This enabled me to devote more tim.e and labor 
to the town of York, having for my assistant Rev. Egerton Ryerson, who,, like 
myself, had this year been admitted on trial. A more agreeable and useful col- 
league I could not desire. We labored together with one heart and mind; and 
God was graciously pleased to crown our united efforts with success. We doubled 
the members in the Society both in town and country, and all was harmony 
and love. Political questions were not yet rife, indeed, scarcely known among 
us. Onr Church was an asylum for any who feared God and wrought righteous- 
ness, irrespective of any party whatever. 

Sad enough that such harmony had not continued to the end! 
Yet we may look with interest upon the opening of the doors of our 
Annual Conference to admit two such men in the same year. They 



James Richardson. 747 

have both impressed their cliaracter -upon tlie Canadian people, and 
their works shall be remembered for many generations. 

In 1826, from the Conference held in the township of Hamilton, 
adjacent to Cobiii'g, Bishop George sent Richardson to Niagara, a 
section aboundhig in the associations of his youth and reminiscences 
of the war. In 1827, in the Conference held in the city of Ham- 
ilton, he was admitted into full connection, elected to deacon's orders, 
and ordained thereto, to use his own words, by the " estimable Bishop 
Hedding.'' This year he Avas appointed a missionary to the Chippewa 
Indians at Port Credit. In 1828 in the Ernestown Conference, 
previously alluded to, at Switzer's Chapel, the same Bishop Iledding 
in the chair, he was elected Secretary of the Conference, an office to 
which he was annually elected for four successive years. ^' At this 
Conference," -he says, "was taken the decisive step of separation from 
the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the 
United States ; and we resolved ourselves into an independent Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church in Canada, in friendly relations to the former." 
His appointment this year was to the I^iagara Circuit, on which 
charge he remained two years, having Gatchell and Stoney as col- 
leagues. In 1829 he was elected to elder's orders, but was not or- 
dained, as no Bishoj) w^as in attendance, on account of the separation 
and non-election. Yet thus is it evident that the Church adhered to 
the episcopal polity, and held to divers orders in the ministry. The 
Conference of 1830 held its session at Kingston, and was visited by 
Bishop Hedding. The Bishop, by cordial resolution of Conference, 
was invited to take a seat in the Conference, and assist by his counsel 
and advice. He was also earnestly requested to preside during the 
religious services of the Sabbath, and ordain the preachers presented 
to him as suitable persons for ordination. These measures show the 
views of the Conference as to the continuity of the polity and the 
necessity of episcopal ordination. He ordained six elders, one of 
whom was Richardson, and twenty-one deacons. " The Conference 
of 1830," he says, " was a movable one between Belleville and King- 
ston. This was to meet Bishop Hedding at Kingston, who kindly 
came there to ordain our elected deacons and elders. Among the lat- 
ter I received the imposition of his hands on August 22, 1830." 

The Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada, or, as some like to call 



748 Methodist Bishops. 

it, for a purpose, the Canada Conference, displayed at this time no 
httle energy. The preachers pushed on their work vigorously, and 
the Societies were blessed with considerable increase. In 1829 the 
"Christian Guardian" was established, and in 1830 were laid the 
foundations of the Upper Canada Academy, now Victoria College, at 
Coburg. In both these noble enterprises Eichardson was a prominent 
actor ; and both were begun and prosecuted for years in the name, 
title, and possession of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada. 

Eev. Egerton Ryerson was the first editor of the " Guardian," and 
made it a power for Voluntary ism in the land, and a terror to the 
Family Compact and the partisans of a State Church. After having 
passed 1830 on Kingston Circuit, and 1831 as Presiding Elder of the 
I^iagara District, in 1832 Richardson was elected editor of the "Guard- 
ian," and well maintained its spirit and tone for the purity and 
power of the Church and the rights of the people. Yoluntaryism 
with him was a settled principle of action. He thoroughly believed 
Christ's Gospel should be proclaimed, and the ministry maintained, 
through the free-will offerings of the people, and not the forced taxes 
and tithes of the State. From this conviction he never swerved, and 
he could not sujEfer any measure that had any tendency toward making 
the support of the Gospel compulsory. Hence when he learned, in 
1834-35, that, at least indirectly. Government money was received for 
mission work, he could not tolerate the idea, but withdrew from the 
"Wesleyans, with whom he had for a little while gone. Hence also he 
ever zealously opposed the sustenance of Church colleges and schools 
by special annual grants directly under the control of the ministry of 
the day, and, therefore, liable to abuse ; while, nevertheless, he advo- 
cated the bestowment of public money on those institutions under a 
general measure by act of Parliament, bearing equally on all, and 
from which all could obtain aid according to the public benefits they 
were prepared to insure. 

In 1833 and 1834 he was Presiding Elder of the York District. 
In 1835, under the Wesleyan regime^ his title was changed to Chair- 
man of the Toronto District. In 1836, dissatisfied with the union 
Yv'ith the British Conference and its consequences, he desisted from 
traveling at his own request, and went to the United States, particu- 
larly for the education of his children. In 1837 he returned to 



James Richardson. 749 

Toronto, where he, as he often expressed it, providentially met Phi- 
lander Smith, who had also withdrawn from the Wesleyan Conference 
for similar reasons, and went with him to the Conference of the 
Methodist Episcopal Chnrch, just then in session at Willowdale, near 
Toronto ; and there they two again united with the brethren who still 
preferred the Episcopacy to the recent changes and had determined to 
maintain it, as they did in unbroken continuity. 

Kichardson and Smith often spoke of their feelings on that mem- 
orable occasion. The little Conference appeared feeble and unpromis- 
ing enough. The preachers were none too well clad, and looked like 
men encountering labors and great hardships. Their deliberations were 
solemn, their devotions ardent, and their faith in God mighty. The 
two undecided visitors, inquiring the ways of Providence concerning 
themselves, sat in thoughtfulness and observed them closely. At last 
they said : " Brethren, we have been wandering, ill at rest, and un- 
happy. We are convinced the Lord is with you, and though opposed 
and oppressed, you have made a noble stand. But receive us again 
and we shall be content." Then were there tears of joy and of grief, 
of thanksgiving and sympathy, mingled unutterable emotions and 
tears, and committals of all to God ; and rejoicings in his guidance 
and deliverances, and pledges of renewed fidelity to him, and expecta- 
tions of privations and labors and scorn, and assurance of divine sup- 
port. And so went they forth, never faltering, but trusting in God 
and continuing steadfast, abundant in labor till the day of their death. 
In the spirit of Paul as he exclaimed, " ISTone of these things move me, 
neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my 
course with joy, and the ministry w^hich I have received of the Lord 
Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God." 

These were eventful years for Methodism in Canada. As has 
been shown, in 1828 it was set oif by the General Conference to be a 
Methodist Episcopal Church. It continued distinctly a Methodist 
Episcopal Church till 1833, when the Conference, without previous 
consultation or consent of the laymen, united with the British Wes- 
leyans, and formed the Wesleyan Church in Canada. The majority 
of the laymen were subsequently led into the union, but many of the 
societies and some of the preachers protested against such action from 
the very beginning. They were unwilling to relinquish the episcopal 



750 Methodist Bishops. 

polity and order, or to be handed over to another body, without con- 
stitutional procedure. Some are very quick to say that no material 
change was made, and that they were the same Church after the 
change that they were before. But let an attempt be made to turn 
the English Conference into Episcopalians, or the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in the United States into AYesleyans, and see how willing 
either body would be for the movement, or how readily it would con- 
ceive its continuity and identity had been preserved ! Fully one 
twelfth of the membership in Upper Canada, especially laymen, pro- 
tested against the attempt from the outset, and thereby preserved the 
polity given them of their fathers. Moreover, it is to be remembered 
that these measures in the Church were entangled with the political 
movements of the time, and the feelings of the colonists were thereby 
intensified. Previous to the separation from the Church in the 
United States there had been a distinct agreement between the Gen- 
eral Conference in America and the British Conference that the 
American missionaries should confine themselves to Upper Canada, 
and the British to the Lower Provinces. In the language of M'Ken- 
dree, ''A transfer of societies and places of preaching will, of course, 
follow. Our societies in Lower Canada are to be put under the care 
of our British brethren, and theirs in the Upper Province under ours." 
Notwithstanding this compact, the British missionaries, even against 
the protest of the General Conference, remained in Upper Canada; 
and unfortunately, in subsequent years, when the ruling pov/er of the 
colony, for political considerations, sought a division and weakening 
of the Methodists because they always resisted the schemes for the 
establishment of a State Church, afforded a facility of operation for 
designing men that they were not slow to improve. And imj^rove it 
they did, and rent the Church and put ofi the day of justice for the 
people. To many of the Methodists of the time there were, no doubt, 
weighty and honest reasons for the course they took ; but subsequent 
events would scarcely justify their action. And the issues of schemes 
are their best comment and explanation. At all events, it was this 
explanation that guided and settled Eichardson, Smith, and many 
others in the following years. 

In 1838 the subject of our narrative was appointed Agent of the 
Upper Canada Bible Society. For eleven years he served this organ- 



James Richardson. TT)! 

ization with the greatest efficiency, traveling through most of the 
province and extending at once his work and the sphere of his ac- 
quaintance. Some of his most valued friendships were with the men 
of laro-e views and kind hearts whom this work drew within the range 
of his association. On his death the Board of Managers expressed 
their o-rief in most complimentary terms, and appeared as a body in 
the large procession that followed his remains to the Necropolis. 
The Tract Society, in wdiich he had taken special interest, the Tem- 
perance Society, and the York Pioneers, the venerable partners of his 
early toils, did him similar honor. There was but one voice when 
this ffreat and ffood man died— the voice of a whole people in sincerest 
sorrow and profoundest respect. He resigned the agency in 1849 on 
account of personal and domestic affliction. 

Thus detained at home for some years, he was useful to the Church 
in co-operating in the founding of the Belleville Seminary, now 
Albert College, at Belleville, Ontario. Under his nurturing care, as 
President of the Board of Managers, and of the Senate, this noble 
institution has growm into a vigorous support to the Church and an 
honor to the country. It has always been conducted on the voluntary 
principle, and in its prosperity under such a direction has done not a 
little toward breaking down the system of special grants, so dangerous 
in its tendencies. 

He was again appointed Presiding Elder of the Toronto District 
in 185Y ; and by the General Conference, at St. Davids, in August, 
1858, was elected and consecrated Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in Canada. The high and sacred responsibilities of this office 
he continued to discharge, with the growing respect and love of preach- 
ers and people, till the day of his departure from earth. He died at 
his home in Toronto, in the midst of his beloved family and many dear 
brethren, March 9, 1875, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. Full 
of years, full of honors, full of Christian faith and hope, he passed with 
triumph into the realms of the ever-living ; w^ith joy into the associa- 
tions of the patriarchs and prophets, the true and the good of all ages 
and climes. 

His character and his w^ork may be readily gathered from this 
brief sketch of his life. In every sphere of activity in which he 
came he filled its full orb with his intelligence, energy, and goodness. 



752 Methodist Bishops. 

In the domestic circle, in society, in the Chui-ch, and in the nation, 
lie was the complete man. He was firm without being dogmatic ; he 
was mild without being easj and indifferent. He loved his home 
without neglecting his country ; he served his country without slight- 
in o- his home. In council the sage, in action the hero, in manner the 
gentleman, in conversation the historian and philosopher, scarcely a 
man in the land would have been so missed. Certainly none were more 
deeply venerated or more ardently loved. As a soldier he was faith- 
ful and brave. As a man of business he was honorable and obliging. 
As a preacher he .was zealous and effective. As a Bishop and admin- 
istrator of Discii)line he was candid, enei-getic, careful, and correct. 
In i^lain exposition of the blessed doctrines of the Bible he had no 
superior ; in knowledge of Church Discipline and ecclesiastical polity, 
perhaps not an equal in the country. His were grand abilities, and 
at the same time a steady equilibrium of faculties. And, best of all, 
he was humble, and delighted to count all but loss that he might win 
Christ, and lead his fellow-men to God. His highest praise ; he led 
many to righteousness. 



BRITISH METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



11HIS body was originally a part of the African Methodist Episco- 
pal Church. It was organized as an independent body in 1856. 
They adopted the episcopal form of government. The Eev. Willis 
]^azrey was their first Bishop. He organized Conferences in I^ova 
Scotia, Bermuda, the West Indies, and British Guiana ; but the oldest 
Conference is the Ontario. They publish a paper called the *' Mission- 
ary Messenger," with a circulation of 22,000 copies, and have founded 
a literary institution at Chatham, Ontario, called the " Amalgamated 
Wilberforce and Nazrey Institute." Their statistics are not com- 
plete. 



Willis Nazrey. 



VILLIS NAZREY was bom March 5, 1808, in Isle of Wight 
County, Virginia. His parents, like most of their race, were 
poor and lived in humble circumstances. Xo opportunities opened 
before them for the education of their son. The construction of so- 
ciety and the appointments of the State were not friendly to his class. 
When their labor would contribute to the wealth and prosperity of 
their master and the perpetuity of slavery, then young Nazrey 's people 
had reached their highest privilege. To toil as slaves was thought to 
be their normal condition. It is surprising that from such a condition 
of servitude any considerable portion of people should rise to make 
a Church of God, while it is still more astonishing that any one of the 
down-trodden class should so deport himself that his own people 
should create the office of Bishop and induct him into it. Certainly it 
is a manifestation of the capacity of the race for self-government, and 
that, too, under the most unfavorable circumstances. 

To trace the early life of Bishop Nazrey w^ould be impossible with 
the meager amount of material he has left us. He moved from Vir- 
ginia to New York city, wdiere, on August 22, 1832, he was married 
to Miss Margaret Walker, the youngest daughter of John Walker, of 
Yirginia. She died peacefully on April 23, 1836. On the 3d day of 
May, in 1843, he was married again to Miss Mary Ann Harris, daugh- 
ter of James Harris, of Philadelphia, who still survives. 

Mr. Nazrey was in his twenty-ninth year before he was awakened 
to see his need of a new life. When the Spirit strove with him in con- 
viction he yielded, and experienced a change of heart which was clear 
and satisfactory to him as a work of God. This was about a year after 
his wife died. He was a devoted husband, and the loss of his wife 
exerted a peculiar influence upon him, and finally resulted in the 
decision to join his fortunes with the people of God. He was Yerj 
emphatic in his testimony of a change of heart ; and he soon won the 



'"X. 





REV WILLIS NAZREY. 



Willis Nazrey. 757 

confidence of Christian people as to the genuineness of the change he 
professed that God had wrouglit in him. 

Immediately following this new experience he received a distinct 
call from God by the Holy Spirit to preach the Gospel. Of it he 
says : " I am as conscious of my call to preach the Gospel as I am of 
my own existence." He immediately united with the African Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church in E"ew York city. 

In 1838 he was licensed as an exhorter, and in the spring of 1840 
his brethren, by their voluntary action, granted him a license as a 
local preacher. He labored with great success in New York and 
vicinity as a licentiate, being kindly received by the people, and always 
speaking strong and bold words for his Master. 

He was recommended and received into the Kew York Confer- 
ence when he was thirty-three years old, just three years after his 
conversion. He was immediately transferred to the Baltimore Con- 
ference, and stationed two years at Lewistown, Pa. In 1842 he was 
transferred to the Pennsylvania Conference and appointed to labor for 
two years in Trenton, E"ew Jersey. Afterward, two years in Prince- 
ton. In 1846-47 he was pastor of the Bethel Church, in Philadelphia, 
and in 1848-49 he served the Union Church, in the same city. At 
this point there is a break in his diary, so that for the two following 
years we cannot trace his course. We have no doubt they were spent 
in good service, for they precede immediately his election to the 
episcopal office. He was ordained deacon in Baltimore, in 1841, and 
elder in PhiladeljDhia, in 1843, by Bishop Morris Brown. 

Thus Mr. Nazrey came into the Church in the strength of his 
manhood, and filled all the positions regularly on his way to the office 
of an elder in the Church of God. His promotion was rapid, but not 
any more so than the exigencies of the cause demanded, and it is 
gratifying to note that the strides he made to important pulpits and 
high offices were alw^ays followed by a uniform success in the perform- 
ance of his duties which justified the judgment of liis brethren, both 
in the laity and ministry, concerning his natural abilities and acquire- 
ments of culture and grace. 

In the month of May, 1852, the General Conference of the African 
Methodist Episcopal Church met in l^ew York, and the Kev. Willis 
E^azrey was elected to the office of Bishop. Twelve years had now 



758 Methodist Bishops. 

elapsed since he became an itinerant preacher. His work had been 
done in great centers of population, under the eyes of many of the 
most intelligent and influential men in his Church ; hence, it was a 
high indorsement of his labors, and higher than is common when we 
remember his age when converted, and the comparatively brief time 
he had spent in the office of the ministry. 

The ordination of this man to the high office of a Bishop, on the 
13tli day of May, 1852, by Bishop Paul Quinn, was, all circumstances 
considered, a remarkable event in this Church. 

For twelve years Bishop Nazrey served the African Methodist 
Episcopal Church in America, in his new office, with marked success. 
His preaching was plain and eloquent, instructive and spiritual. In 
the administration of discipline he was kind, but firm in the enforce- 
ment of rules. He guarded the name and honor of his Chm-ch with 
a jealous eye in all his public and private intercourse with the people. 
As a presiding officer he was dignified and urbane, preserving order, 
and tiding a conference through a difficult place quite as much by 
his quiet dignity, which indicated reserved resources, as by his aggress- 
ive tact and skill in manipulating men and plans. He was a man of 
great influence among his people. His career as a Bishop was not con- 
fined to the routine work he assumed at his ordination ; but with his 
characteristic loyalty to the honest convictions of his heart he yielded 
to the call of God and his Church to go into Canada and organize the 
scattered forces of that country. 

From the year 1816, the time when the Rev. Richard Allen was 
elected to the Episcopacy in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 
the work of the denomination spread rapidly over the various States 
and into British ]^orth America. A great many slaves who had 
escaped from their masters fled to Canada for liberty. Just as the 
fathers of this country came out from England to secure religious 
liberty in this Western world, so did these Christians and slaves seek 
protection and a refuge under the folds of the British flag in the 
Province of Canada. 

They gradually increased in numbers and influence till about the 
year 1835, when they petitioned the African Methodist Episcopal 
Church in the United States to send missionaries to preach the Gospel 
to them, gather the wanderers, and organize them into societies. The 



Willis Nazrey. 759 

Church was considerate and granted the prayer of the petitioners. 
For more tlian twenty years this ecclesiastical relation continued be- 
tween the people in Canada and the Church in the United States. 
As time passed away the people became so numerous in the Canadian 
portion of the work that conflicts in discipline between the two sec- 
tions were of frequent occurrence, and they decided to separate them- 
selves from the African (Bethel) Church in the United States. It 
was at the General Conference held in Cincinnati, in 1856, that a peti- 
tion was presented from the people in Canada, asking for a separation 
from the African Methodist Episcopal Church, when this prayer was 
also granted. 

Immediately, however, a discussion sprang up among the Method- 
ists of Canada concerning the form of clmrch government to be 
adopted ; whether it should be Congregational or E]3iscopal. Strange 
as it may seem, in the discussion that followed some of their authori- 
ties claimed that ''Mr. Wesley had established both forms;" but as the 
fathers of the African Methodist Episcopal Church had adopted the 
latter form, and since their people had been led to God under it, they 
decided that the African population in the British dominion could be 
more successfully reached under the episcopal than under any other 
form of government. They then named their organization the British 
Methodist Episcopal Church. When the discussion was ended and 
the question settled, the election of a Bishop was the next step to be 
taken in perfecting their organization. The adaptation of Bishop 
Willis Nazrey to the work of his office was recognized by his friends 
in the ministry and laity in both countries, and when it M^as suggested 
that he could be prevailed upon to accept the bishopric, he was im- 
mediately and officially invited so to do. 

The separation of Bishop E"azrey from his former colleagues, and 
his recognition as Bishop in liis new field of labor, was harmoniously 
effected. The following certificate was the authority on which his 
brethren in Canada received him as their overseer : 

To all whom it may concern, greeting .-—This certifies that the bearer, Rev. 
Willis Nazrey, was ordained to the office of Bisliop in the African Methodist 
Episcopal Church on the 13th day of May, 1852, and has exercised the episcopal 
functions in said Church with dignity and credit up to this date; and he has, 
by mutual consent, resigned all official relations to the African Methodist 



760 Methodist Bishops. 

Episcopal Church in the United States of America, for the purpose of servino- the 
British Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada, B. A. 

We take great pleasure in commending him to the Christian world as a faith- 
ful shepherd of the Church of God. 

(Signed) William Paul Quinn, ) 

Alexatsder W. Wayman, >• Bishops. 
[Seal.] John M. Brown, Secretary. Jabez P. Campbell, ) 

Philadelphia, June 30, 1864. 

After his transfer, Bishop Nazrey set himself immediately to the 
task of organizing Conferences and inspiring the preachers and people 
for the work before them. He extended the border of the British 
Methodist Episcopal Church of Canada by organizing Conferences in 
JSTova Scotia and Bermuda, the West Indies, and British Guiana. His 
untiring zeal and organizing skill were of incalculable advantage to this 
yoiing Church in this new field. He accomplished a work that was 
worthy an Asbury or a Coke; quietly but surely did he plant the 
standard of his Church and w^on the people to it. 

Bishop ISTazrey accumulated some property, and purchased a farm 
near the towm of Chatham, Ontario, where he lived for many years. 
Through his exertions an educational institute was established under 
the authority of the British Methodist Episcopal Church, and incor- 
porated by Act of Parliament bearing date December 22, 1869, under 
the title of the " ]N"azrey Institute." This school was afterward 
merged with the " Wilberforce Institute," and the union being ap- 
proved, it was incorporated by Parliament, March 29, 18Y3, under 
the title of the " Amalgamated "Wilberforce and Nazrey Institute." 
It is now in operation on the [N'azrey Institute property, near Chat- 
ham, Ontario. Bishop l^azrey was a trustee and an active member 
of the Board until his death. 

After closing the l^ova Scotia Conference at Shelburne, ^ova 
Scotia, August 6, 1875, Bishop ^NTazrey was taken sick on the follow- 
ing Sunday, August 8th. In perfect peace of mind, but much pain 
of body, he lingered until Sunday, the 22d day of the same month, 
w^hen he fell asleep in Christ and was at rest, leaving the infant 
Church he had organized in the care of a God whom he had learned 
to trust in all the conflicts and toils of his eventful and useful life. 



THE BRITISH METHODIST EPISCOPAL 
CHURCH OF lOHTH AMERICA. 



THIS body was located in Canada, and composed of colored people, 
most of whom left the United States in the days of slavery. It 
was originally a part of the British Methodist Episcopal Church, but 
in 1862 separated from that body. They were weak numerically, 
numbering about fifteen ministers ; their membership is not known. 
Bishop Green was the only man who ever served in the episcopal office 
among them. The Church, as a distinct organization, was merged 
with the African Methodist Episcopal Church of America,, after ten 
years of independent existence. 
44 



Augustus R, Green. 



BY EEV. T. L. FLOOD, D.D. 



THE subject of this sketch was born in Chambersburgh, Franklin 
Conntj, Pa., Jnlj 8, 1810. He was the third born among thir- 
teen children. His educational advantages were limited, owing to the 
poverty of his parents and the prejudice that existed against his race. 
The public schools, and all avenues to intellectual culture, were 
closed against him until he was thirteen years old. At this time he 
secured a situation as " boy of all work " at the Pennsylvania Mili- 
tary College, at Gettysburg!!, where he remained three years. His 
spare moments here were utilized in reading and studying such books 
as he could borrow from the teachers and students ; and with the aid 
of the latter as his instructors he made good use of his opportunities, 
and thereby acquired a great deal of valuable knowledge which was 
helpful to him in his work in subsequent years. 

During his stay at the college he attended the African Methodist 
Episcopal Church, and under the labors of the Pev. Jeremiah Beulah, 
he was awakened and converted, and united with this Church. When 
he was sixteen years old he was placed as an apprentice to an edge- 
tool manufacturer in Mercersburgh, where he remained a little over 
a year. He was a nervous, active youth, and hence unwilling to settle 
down to the routine work of an apprentice, notwithstanding the trade 
gave him good promise of support in life as a skilled mechanic. 

He went " West," as it was then called, though he only moved to 
Pittsburgh. The journey was made on foot, with his bundle on his 
back. Here he worked at his trade for about a year, and then he 
moved to Fayette County, where he worked on a farm. Having accu- 
mulated some property during his life, he afterward purchased this 
farm, and for a time made it his home. 

In all his travels from place to place he sought the Church as a 
child seeks its home, >and was always classed among her active and 



Augustus R. Geeek *r63 

positive friends. The Cliiircli in tins locality found in liim a valuable 
working member, and it was in this vicinity that he was licensed as a 
local preacher. For more than three years he had been impressed 
by the Holy Spirit that he must preach, but his modest and retiring 
disposition prevented his lieeding the call. lie pleaded his ignorance 
and inability to snch an extent, that it was not nntil the year 1833 
that he decided fully to enter upon the active work of the ministry. 
He was plowing in a field one day close by the road, when he was 
hailed by the Eev. Mr. Cony on, on horseback, who, having stopped 
his horse, stated that he was on his way to the African Methodist Epis- 
copal Conference, and invited Mr. Green to go with him. They went 
to the house together for dinner, where, in the leisure of the hour, 
Mr. Conyon renewed his request that Mr. Green should accompany 
him to the session of the Conference. . Mrs. Green joined in the plead- 
ing, and at last he consented to go, more out of curiosity than from 
a desire to witness the proceedings of the body. The two men set 
out for Conference together, Mr. Green not thinking that he was then 
taking the step that would separate him perman-ently from his plow 
and farm. 

After they arrived at the seat of the Conference, which was Little 
Washington, Pa., the plans of Mr. Green's companion were gradually 
unfolded. When the Conference was opened the most powerful per- 
sonal appeals were made to Mr. Green to unite with the body. Men 
were in demand, the work was increasing on every hand, and appeals 
from societies came up from many directions for preachers ; and, irreg- 
ular as it now seems in this Church, these solicitations were made that 
he unite with the Conference without any further recommendation 
than his local preacher's license, his character as a man of God, and 
his reputation as a successful Christian worker. After several sleep- 
less nights and much prayer, he decided to give his name to the Con- 
ference ; it was accepted, and he was in the ranks of the ministry, and 
his farm, with the plow out in the furrow, left behind. 

He was appointed to the Washington Circuit. It was then, as it is 
now, one of the important charges in the Conference. He remained 
here three years, enjoying his field -of labor and seeing niaaij souls 
converted. From here he was sent to Pittsburgh Station, then to Alle- 
gheny, and afterward to the Erie Circuit, which extended from Pitts- 



764 Methodist Bishops. 

burgli to Erie, including Beaver. Mercer, l^ew Castle, Meadville, and 
all the towns in ]^ortli-western Pennsylvania. He traveled tliis terri- 
tory a part of the time on foot, and a part of the time on horseback, 
his heart being cheered by the success that attended his labors 
among the Ch arches. 

He was taken from the pastorate by being elected Superintendent 
of the Book Concern and Editor of the " Christian Herald," the official 
organ of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, located at Pitts- 
burgh. He returned to this city, which he left a few years previous 
for the farm, and devoted himself to the work of his new offices with 
a tact and zeal which impressed his Church that his election was a 
wise choice. At the ensuing General Conference he was re-elected 
by a unanimous vote, but he positively declined the place, preferring 
the pastorate. Another was chosen to fill the offices, and Mr. Green 
returned to pastoral work. He was now transferred to the Ohio Con- 
ference. We find him serving Churclies in Cincinnati, Chillicothe, 
Zanesville, Columbus, Toledo, and Detroit, Mich. Plis preaching 
always arou.sed the Church and awakened sinners ; it was plain, and 
imbued w4th the Spirit. He preached with unction, and frequently 
with wonderful power. He saw hundreds of men, women, and chil- 
dren, brought to the Lord and saved. It was thought by many that 
he was at this time the most conspicuous figure in the ranks of the 
ministry in his Church in the State of Ohio. He was known and 
recognized every-where in the State among his people as an able and 
popular preacher and worker in the vineyard. 

At the Annual Conference of 1860 he took a transfer to the 
Canada Conference, which afterward severed its connection with the 
African Methodist Episcopal Church of America, and was organized 
under the name of the British Methodist Episcopal Church, under the 
leadership of Bishop Willis Nazney. 

While he served the British Methodist Episcopal Church at Wind- 
sor, C. W., internal troubles arose, which, though they did not per- 
sonally affect him, yet caused him to join fortune with the party that 
ultimately separated themselves from the British Methodist Episcopal 
Church. The Church at Windsor was divided, and the division 
extended over the entire Conference, and resulted in the organization 
of a new Church that was called the " British Methodist Episcopal 



Augustus E. Green. 765 

Church of 'North America." Mr. Green was strenuously urged to 
allow himself to be elected Bishop of the new organization, but he 
resisted successfully for several months. Finally, however, he was 
prevailed upon to yield to the entreaties of his friends, many of whom 
were influenced to move from the United States to Canada by his rep- 
resentations, and since the new Church was composed largely of this 
class of persons, he felt under peculiar obligations to them. When 
he w^as elected the new Church numbered fourteen ministers. Bishop 
Green established and edited for several years, " The True Eoyalist," 
a paper devoted to the spread of religious and secular intelligence. 
lie now came face to face with a great trial if not persecution. At' 
the instance of one or more ministers and members in the old Church, 
he was arrested and indicted at nine different times for exercising his 
episcopal prerogative in ordaining his ministers, administering the 
sacraments, and solemnizing matrimony ; old questions, to be sure, and 
the renewal of an old contest in a new field and by another race, but 
" history repeats itself," while the truth goes marching on. 

The various charges and trials culminated at the S23ring assizes of 
Middlesex County, C. W., in May, 1863, when, after a long and 
desperately contested trial, he was found not guilty of any misde- 
meanor, and the jury further found that Augustus E. Green was the 
true and only Bishop of the British Methodist Episcopal Church of 
North America. It was a strange proceeding to American eyes for a 
judicial court to decide ecclesiastical prerogatives, but such are the 
issues where Church and State are united. The rendering of the 
verdict was loudly applauded. Bishop Green w^as congratulated by 
hundreds of friends, both white and black, and from that day his per- 
secutors ceased to trouble him. Pie went to the work of his office 
with fresh courage and new hope, and saw^ his Church increase in 
numbers and become a power in the land. 

The issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation, by President Lin- 
coln, unsettled the foundations of this new Church organization. 
The freedom of the slaves caused a large number of the people and 
preachers in the Church to return to the United States, and Bishop 
Green was himself led to believe that he could render a better service 
to the cause of God in America than he could in Canada ; hence, in 
1872, he made overtures to the African Methodist Episcopal Church 



766 Methodist Bishops. 

of tlie United States which were kindly received, and his entire Con- 
ference was accepted as worthy members of the Indiana Confer- 
ence of the African Methodist Episcopal Chnrch. 

After a service of nearly ten years, as a Bishop in Canada, Mr. 
Green was transferred to the Baltimore Conference, and stationed as 
pastor of Mount Hope Church, Washington, D. C. After a successfnl 
pastorate of two years in this Church he was transferred to the Missis- 
sippi Conference, and made pastor of the Church in Yicksburgh. 
Here he labored faithfully until that terrible scourge, the yellow fever, 
broke out in 18TS. He was advised by some of his friends to leave 
the city, but he replied : " My Conference has sent me here, and it is 
my duty to stand at my post of duty ; if it is the Lord's will that I 
shall fall by this terrible disease, I am ready." He sent his wife and 
the members of his household to a place of safety, and then gave him- 
self up to the task of caring for the sick and dying. While that ter- 
rible scourge was destroying the people, he could be seen day and 
night going from house to house rendering whatever aid he could, 
both of a physical and spiritual nature. It was his joy to bless the 
sick with such earthly comforts as caused them to call him blessed, 
and with his words of Christian counsel he presented Jesus Christ as 
an all-sufficient Saviour. 

On September 5, 1878, he was prostrated by the terrible fever, 
and, notwithstanding he was a splendid specimen of a man, being six 
feet in height, and weighing two hundred and eight pounds, in forty- 
eight hours after the fever came he- was dead, and his work on earth 
was done. 

While the nature of the disease forbade his friends coming to his 
side, or attending his funeral, and though no dying testimony came 
from his lips to comfort his family, or the multitudes he had inspired 
to lead a better life, yet he fell at his post, and his own words, "I am 
ready," are a testimony to the power of Christ to save a man from 
selfishness in the face of danger and death. 



APPENDIX 



EMBRACING SKETCHES OF THE LIVING BISHOPS IN THE 

DIFFERENT BRANCHES OF EPISCOPAL METHODISM 

IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA. 



SKETCHES OF THE LIVING EISHOPS 



OF THE 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 



!Bi§liop liCvi Scott, D.D., was born near Odessa, Delaware, 
October 11, 1802. He was married to Miss Sarah Ann Smith, at her 
father's house, Philadelphia, JS'ovember 22, 1830. He was converted 
October 16, 1822, and the call to preach, then given, was not under- 
stood until some time afterward. He was received into the Phila- 
delphia Conference in April, 1826, and became a member of the 'New 
Jersey Conference in 1836, but returned to the Philadelphia Confer- 
ence in 1837, by transfer. He was ordained deacon by Bishop 
George in 1828, in Philadelphia, and elder by Bishop Hedding, in 
1830. He has filled the following appointments : 1826, Talbot Cir- 
cuit, Md. ; 1827, Dover, Del. ; 1828-29, St. George's Charge, Phila- 
delphia; 1830-31, Westchester, Md. ; 1832, supernumerary; 1833, 
Kent, Md. ; 1834-35, Delaware District ; 1836, Frankhn-street, 
Newark, E". J. ; 1837-38, Ebenezer, Philadelphia ; 1839, St. Paul's, 
Philadelphia; 1840-42, Principal of Dickinson Gram^mar School; 
1843-44, Union Church, Philadelphia; 1845-48, South Philadelphia 
District; 1848-52, Assistant Book Agent, New York. He was 
elected and ordained Bishop in 1852, in Boston, Mass. His home 
is Odessa, E"ewcastle County, Del. He received the degree of A. M. 
from Wesleyan University, and that of D.D. from Delaware College. 

Bigkop Mattlieir 8iiiip^oii, D.D., lili.H., was born in 
Cadiz, Ohio, June 21, 1811. He was educated at Madison College, 
afterward merged into Alleghany College. He was married in Pitts- 
burgh, November 3, 1835, to Miss Ellen H. Yerner. He was con- 
verted in 1829, and licensed to preach in 1833. He joined the 



Appendix. 769 

Pittsburgh Conference in 1833, and has since been a member of tlie 
Indiana and N^orth Indiana Conferences. He was ordained deacon by 
Bishop Roberts, at Pittsburgh, in 1835, and elder by the same Bishop, 
at Steubenville, Ohio. He has filled the following appointments: 
St. Clairsville Circuit, 1833-34; Pittsburgh, 1834-36; Monongahela 
City, 1836-37. He has held the following positions in connection with 
the schools and other institutions of the Church : Yice-President of .. 
and Professor of JSTatural Science in Alleghany College, 1837-39 ; 
President of Indiana Asbury University, 1839-48 ; Editor of " West- 
ern Christian Advocate," 1848-62. He was elected and ordained 
Bishop at Boston, in May, 1852. He resides in Philadelphia, Pa. 
He received the degree of A.M. from Alleghany College, and those 
of D.D. and LL.D. from Wesleyan University. 

Bisliop. Thomas Bowiiiait, B.B., I^Ij.B., was born in 
Berwick, Pa., July 15, 1817. He graduated at Dickinson College in 
1837, and was married July 13, 1841, to Miss Matilda Hartman, of 
York, Pa. He was converted January 1, 1833, and called to preach 
during the summer of 1838. He entered the Conference, March, 1839, 
and has been a member of the Baltimore, East Baltimore, South-east 
Indiana, and North Indiana Conferences. He was ordained deacon and 
elder in Baltimore, in both cases by Bishop Waugh. He has had the 
following appointments : Beaver Meadow Mission, one year ; Pre|)ar- 
atory Department of Dickinson College, three years ; Supernumerary, 
with partial work at Berwick, Pa., five years ; Principal of Dickinson 
Seminary, at Williamsport, Pa., ten years ; Pastor at Lewisburgh, Pa., 
one year; President of Indiana Asbury University, fourteen years. 
He was elected and ordained Bishop at Brooklyn, 'N. Y., in May, 1872. 
He received the degrees of A.B. and A.M. from Dickinson College, 
in course ; of D.D. from Ohio Wesleyan University ; and of LL.D. 
from Dickinson College. LTis home is St. Louis, Missouri. 

Bishop 1¥. li. Harris, B.B., Iili.l>., was born in the town 
of Troy, Eichland County, Ohio, November 4, 1817. He studied the 
ancient languages and mathematics under Professor Chaplain, in Nor- 
walk Seminary. He was married, August 9, 1840, in Avon, Ohio, to 
Miss Atwell, of Dover, Ohio. He was converted June 10, 1834; 
licensed to preach September, 1835 ; and admitted on trial in the 
Michigan Conference in September, 1837, He has been a member of 



770 Methodist Bishops. 

the Michigan, I^orth Ohio, and Central Ohio Conferences. Upon the 
diWsion of the first, in 1840, he fell into the N^orth Ohio, and when 
that was divided, in 1856, he fell into the Delaware, now the Central 
Ohio. He was ordained deacon in September, 1839, at Ann Arbor, 
Michigan, by Bishop Sonle, and elder, September, 1811, at Wooster, 
Ohio, by Bishop Boberts. His appointments have been as follows: 
1837-38, junior preacher on Dover Circuit ; 1838-39, the same on 
Wooster Circuit ; 1839-40, the same on Mansfield Charge ; 1840-41, 
took charge of Bellville Circuit ; 1841-43, Amity Circuit ; 1843-44, 
Chesterville ; 1844-45, stationed in Delaware ; 1845-46, teacher in the 
Ohio "Wesleyan University ; 1846-47, stationed in Toledo ; 1847-48, 
l^orwalk ; 1848-51, Brincipal of Baldwin Institute, Berea, Ohio ; 
1851-60, Brofessor of Chemistry and j^atural History in Ohio "Wes- 
ley an University ; 1860-72, Assistant Corresponding Secretary of the 
Missionary Society. He was elected and ordained Bishop in May, 
1872, at Brooklyn, ]^. Y. The following degrees have been con- 
ferred upon him : A.M., by the Ohio Wesleyan University ; D.D., by 
Alleghany College ; and LL.D., by Baldwin University, His present 
residence is in 'Ne^Y York city. 

Hislic^p Maiicl^lpli S, Foster, B.B., I^Ij.IIo, was born in 
Williamsburgh, Clermont County, 0., February 22, 1820. He was 
educated at Augusta College, Kentucky, and entered the ministry when 
seventeen years old. He married Miss Sarah A. Miley. He was a 
member of the Ohio Conference from 1837 to 1850 ; of the 'New York 
Conference from September, 1850, to May, 1854 ; of the New York 
East Conference from 1854 to 1856; and of the New York Con- 
ference from 1856 to 1872, when he was elected Bishop. He was 
ordained deacon by Bishop "Waugh, and elder by Bishop Hedding. 
He filled the following appointments : Charleston Circuit, West Vir- 
ginia, one year ; West Chester Circuit, Ohio, one year ; West Union 
Circuit, one year ; Hillsborough, one year ; Bortsmouth Station, one 
year ; Hillsborough Station, one year ; Ninth-street, Cincinnati, one 
year ; Lancaster, two years ; Springfield, two years ; Wesley Chapel, 
Cincinnati, two years ; Mulberry-street, New York, two years ; Ba- 
cific-street, Brookljm, two years ; Trinity Church, New York, one 
year ; Bresident North-western University, three years ; Washington 
Square, two years ; elected Bresident of Troy University, and dechned ; 



Appendix. 771 

Sing Sing, two years ; Eighteentli-street, ^ew York, three years ; 
Washington Sqnare, 'New York, two years — the second year served 
as Professor of Systematic Theology in Drew Theological Seminary, 
and was elected president in 1870. He was elected Bishop in 18Y2 
at Brooklyn. He received the degrees of A.M. and D.D. from the 
Ohio Wesley an University, and LL.D. from I^orth-western University. 
He resides in Boston, Mass. 

Bishop I. 1¥. 'Wiley, B.B., was born at Lewistown, Pa., 
March 29, 1825. He graduated from the Medical Department of the 
University of 'New York. He was married October 6, 1846, to Miss 
Frances J. Martin, and May 21, 1867, to Miss A. Elizabeth Seegar. He 
was converted at thirteen years of age, and began to preach at nine- 
teen, as local preacher. He joined the Genesee Conference in 1850, 
was transferj-ed to the Philadelphia Conference in 1851 ; transferred 
to the JSTew Jersey Conference in 1855, and fell into the I^ewark 
Conference, by division, in 1856. He was ordained deacon by Bishop 
Janes in 1850, and elder by the same in 1851. He has filled the 
following ap23ointments : Foochow, China, 1851-1855 ; ISTewark and 
Jersey City, JST. J., 1856-1858 ; five years (1859-1864) at Pennington 
Collegiate Institute, K J.; eight years (1864-1872) editor of "The 
Ladies' Repository." He was elected and ordained Bishop at Brook- 
lyn, May, 1872. He has received the following degrees: A.M., from 
Dickinson College; M.D., from University of New York; D.D., 
from Wesleyan University. Fie resides in Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Misli®p Stepli©!! M, Merrill, B.I^., was born at Mount 
Pleasant, Jefferson County, O., September 16, 1825. His parents 
subsequently removed to Greenfield, O., where he joined the Method- 
ist Episcopal Church, October 31, 1842. He was licensed to preach 
on April 5, 1845, and was employed under the presiding elder. He 
was admitted in 1846 into the Ohio Conference, and appointed to 
Monroe. To an elementary training he added, by careful study, a 
knowledge of a wide circuit of literature, and w?s honored with the 
degree of A.M. in 1864, from Indiana Asbury University. He was 
presiding elder on Marietta District when, in 1868, he was elected 
a delegate to the General Conference. He took an active part in 
the debates in that body, and during the session was elected editor 
of the " Western Christian Advocate." Having served four years 



772 Methodist Bishops. 

in tliat office, he was, in 1872, elected Bisliop. In the discharge of 
the duties of his office he has traveled extensively over the United 
States, and has visited Mexico. He is author of a work on " Christian 
Baptism," and more recently on the " 'New Testament Idea of Hell." 
• He resided for a time jn St. Paul, Minn., but at present is a resident 
of Chicago. 

Hii^l&C^p E. Cr. Aiidre^v§5 H.U,, was born at New Hartford, 
Oneida County, i^. Y., August 7, 1825. He graduated at Wesleyan 
University, at Middletown, Conn., in 184:7. He was married at 
Cheshire, Conn., to Miss Susan M. Hotchkiss, August 7, 1851. He 
joined the Church when ten years old, and from early life was dedi- 
cated to the ministerial office and work. He became a member of 
the Oneida Conference in 1818, and of the New York East Confer- 
ence in 1864. He was ordained deacon by Bishop Janes in 1818 at 
Owego, E". Y., and elder by Bishop Scott in 1850 at Utica, i^. Y. 
He has filled the following appointments : 1847-48, Morrisville Circuit, 
]Sr. Y., under the elder; 1848-49, Hamilton and Leesville, JS". Y. ; 
1849-50, Hamilton ; 1850-52, Cooperstown, ^. Y. ; 1852-54, Stock- 
bridge, ]Sr. Y. ; 1854-64, Oneida Conference Seminary, in which he 
was professor two years, and principal eight years ; 1864-67, Stam- 
ford, Conn.; 1867-68, Sands-street, Brooklyn; 1868-71, St. John's, 
Brooklyn ; 1871-72, Seventh Avenue, Brooklyn. He was elected and 
ordained Bishop in May, 1872, at Brooklyn, X. Y. His place of resi- 
dence is "Washington, D. C. He has received the following degrees : 
A.B. and A.M., by the Wesleyan University, in course, and D.D., 
by Genesee College. 

Bi§liop Jesse T. Feck, B,B., LiL..!!., was born in Mid- 
dlefield Center, Otsego County, xs". Y., April 4, 1811. He was edu- 
cated under the direction of his brother, the Rev. Dr. George Peck, 
and married Miss Persis Wing, at Cortland, ^N". Y., October 13, 1831. 
He was converted, and called to preach, in the town of Brookifeld, 
Marion County, I^. Y., March 30, 1827. He joined the Oneida Con- 
ference, July 12, 1832, and since has been a member of the Black 
Biver, Troy, Baltimore, ISTew York, and California Conferences. He 
was ordained deacon by Bishop Hedding, at Auburn, N. Y., in 1834, 
and elder by Bishop Waiigh, at Watertown, ]!^. Y., in 1836. He has 
tilled the following aj)]3ointments ; Dry den, !>[. Y., one year ; Xewark 



Appendix. 773 

Yalley, N. Y., one year ; Skaneateles, IST. Y., one year ; Potsdam, 
N. Y., two years; Foundry, Washington, D. C, two years; Greene- 
street, 'New York, two years ; Powell-street, San Francisco, Cal., two 
years ; Santa Clara ; Howard-street, San Francisco, Cal. ; Hudson- 
street, Albany, N. Y. ; Centenary Cliurch, Syracuse, IN'. Y. ; Sixtli- 
street, Sacramento, Cal. ; Presiding Elder San Francisco District, Cal., 
one year. He has held the following positions in connection with the 
schools and other institutions of the Church: Principal of Genesee 
Wesleyan Seminary four years ; Principal of Troy Conference 
Academy seven years ; President of Dickinson College four years ; 
Secretary and Editor of Tract Department of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church two years. He was elected and ordained Bishop at 
Brooklyn, N. Y., May, 1872. His family residence is Syracuse, N. Y. 
He received the degree of Master of Arts from "Wesleyan University, 
and Doctor of Divinity from Union College ; also the degree of LL.D. 
from Willamette University. 

Hisliop Henry l¥o Warren was born in Williamsburgh, 
Mass., January 4, 1831. He was married in Lowell, Mass., in April, 
1855, to Miss D. A. Kilgore. He was converted and called to preach 
in October, 1848. Joined the New England Conference in April, 
1855 ; was transferred to Philadelphia Conference in 1871 ; transferred 
to the New York East Conference in 1874 ; and retransferred to the 
Philadelphia Conference in 1877. He was ordained deacon in 1857 
by Bishop Baker, and elder in 1859 by Bishop Ames. As a pastor 
he has served Worcester, Mass., two years ; North Pussell-street, Bos- 
ton, Mass., two years ; Tremont-street, Boston, St. Paul's, Lynn, and 
Westfield, Mass., each two years ; Trinity Church, Cambridgeport, 
Trinity, Charlestown, Mass., three years each ; Arch-street, Philadel- 
phia, two terms, three years each ; St. John's, Brooklyn, N. Y., three 
years, and Spring Garden-street, Philadelphia, two months, when he 
w^as»elected Bishop. He has filled the positions of teacher of Natural 
Science in Amenia Seminary, N. Y., and teacher of Ancient Lan- 
guages at Wilbraham, Mass. Lie was elected and ordained BishojD in 
May, 1880, in Cincinnati, O. He was educated at Wilbraham, Mass., 
and at Wesleyan University, Conn. The degree of A.B. was con- 
ferred upon him by W^esleyan University, and D.D. by Dickinson 
College. His place of residence is Atlanta, Ga. 



774 Appendix. 

Bishop Cyrus D, F©ss was born January 17, 1834, in King- 
ston, ]^. Y. He lias been twice married : March, 1856, to Miss Mary 
E. Bradley, who died September 7, 1863 ; and on May 10, 1865, to Miss 
Amelia Robertson, of Peekskill, ^. Y. He was converted in 1852. 
He joined the 'New York Conference in 1857, was transferred to the 
New York East Conference in 1859, and retransferred to the ^ew 
York Conference in 1865. He was ordained deacon May 10, 1857, by 
Bishop Baker, and elder May 8, 1859, by Bishop Janes. He has been 
pastor in Chester, N. Y.; Fleet-street, Hanson Place, and South Fifth- 
street, Brooklyn, JST. Y., remaining two years in each place ; at St. 
Paul's, New York city, two terms of three years each ; and at Trinity, 
]^ew York, three years ; also at St. James', JSTew York city, two years. 
From 1854 to 1855 he was teacher of Mathematics in Amenia Sem- 
inary, Amenia, IST. Y. ; and in 1856 he was made principal of the sem- 
inary. From 1875 to 1880 he was President of Wesleyan University, 
Middletown, Conn., his Alma Mater. He was elected and ordained 
Bishop in Cincinnati, O., in May, 1880. His degree of D.D. was 
conferred by AYesle^'an TJniversity, and LL.D. by Cornell University. 
His place of residence is Minneapolis, Minn. 

Bislil>|5 Jolill F, MtlFst was born in Doncaster County, 
Md., August 17, 1834, and married in May, 1859, to Catherine Eliza- 
beth La Monte. He was converted in March, 1819, and called to 
preach in 1858. He joined the [N'ewark Conference in 1858, was 
transferred to the Germany and Switzerland Conference in 1866, and 
retransferred to the IN^ewark Conference in 1872. He was ordained 
deacon in 1860 by Bishop Morris, and elder in 1862 by Bishop Scott. 
He served as pastor in Irvington, N. J., one year ; Passaic, ]^. J., two 
years ; Fulton-street, Elizabeth, ^N". J., two years ; and at Water-street, 
in the same city, two years. He was Professor in the Mission Insti- 
tute, Bremen and Frankfort, from 1866 to 1871, then Professor of 
Church History in Drew Theological Seminary, and Presidentv of 
Drew Seminary from 1873 to 1880. He was elected and ordained 
Bishop in Cincinnati in May, 1880. He graduated from Dickinson 
College, Carlisle, Pa., in 1854. His Alma Mater conferred upon him 
the degree of D.D., and both Dickinson College and Indiana Asbury 
University gave him that of LL.D, His residence is Des Moines^ 
Iowa. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHUECH. SOUTH. 



Bi§!i©p ISotocrt Faiiae, B.B., was born l^ovember 12, 1799, 
in Pierson County, I^. C. He has been married three times — • 
to S. C. Beck, at Nashville, Tenn. ; to A. M. Shaw, in Columbia, 
Tenn. ; and to M. E. Millwater, of Northern Alabama, He was con- 
verted October 9, 1817, and began to preach that fall. After travel- 
ing a year under the direction of a presiding elder, he was admitted 
on trial into the Tennessee Conference in the fall of 1818, and has 
never been a member of any other Conference. He was ordained a 
deacon by Bishop M'Kendree in 1821, and elder by the same Bishop 
in 1823. He has filled the following appointments : ISTashville, Flint 
River, Tuscaloosa, Murfreesborough, and Shelby ville, two years ; 
Franklin and Lebanon, one year; Forked Deer District, one year; 
Nashville Station, two years ; Nashville District, three years. He has 
held the following positions in connection with the schools and other 
institutions of the Church : Professor in La Grange College, sixteen 
and a half years, and President of the Board of Trustees. He was 
elected and ordained Bishop in May, 1846. His residence is Aber- 
deen, Miss. The degree of A.M. was conferred upon him by the Uni- 
versity of Nashville, and that of D.D. by the Wesley an University. 

Bishop Creorge F, Fierce, B^B,, lili.B., was born Feb- 
ruary 3, 1811, in Greene County, Ga. He was married to Miss Anna 
Maria Waldron, of Savannah, Ga., February 4, 1834. He was con- 
verted October 5, 1826, in Athens, Ga., and licensed to preach in 
March, 1830. He joined the first Georgia Conference, January, 
1831, and was one year a member of the South Carolina Conference. 
He was ordained deacon at La Grange, Ga., and elder at Columbia, 
S. C. ; in both cases by Bishop Andrew. His appointments were as 
follows : First year, Alcovi Circuit ; second year, Augusta, Ga. ; 
third year, Savannah, Ga. ; fourth year, Charleston, S. C. ; fifth year, 
Augusta, Ga. ; sixth, seventh, and eighth years, presiding elder of 



i i 



6 Methodist Bishops. 



Augusta District; ninth and tenth years, President of Georgia 
Female College ; eleventh year, agent for the college ; twelfth year, 
stationed at Macon ; thirteenth and fourteenth years, Augusta ; fif- 
teenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth years, Augusta District ; eighteenth 
year, Columbus. He was President of Georgia Pem^ale College in 
1839 and 18^0; agent in 1841; at Macon, .1842; at Augusta, 1843 
and 1844; 1845, Presiding Elder on Augusta District ; and President 
of Emory College, from August 4, 18 — to July, 1854. He was 
elected and .ordained Bishop at Columbus, Ga., 1854. He has 
received the degree of D.D. from Transylvania University, and LL.D. 
from Pandolph Macon College. He resides at S23arta, Hancock 
County, Ga. 

Bi§li®p M. M. KuTfiiiaiigls, B.II,^ was born January 14, 
1802, in Clark County, Ky. He was first married, July 24, 1828, in 
Woodford County, Ky., to Mrs. Margaret C. Green, and afterward 
to Mrs. Martha D. Lewis. He was converted on the 2d day of 
JSToA^ember, 1817, and became an exhorter in, about a year after- 
ward. Under conviction of duty he accepted license to preach 
in 1822 as a local preacher. He joined the Kentucky Conference, 
September 24, 1823, and remained a member until elected Bishop in 
May, 1854. He was ordained deacon at Russellville, Ky., by Bishop 
M'Kendree, in the fall of 1825 ; and was ordained elder at Yersailles, 
Ky., by Bishop B. K. Roberts. He filled 'Q.Ye appointments on cir- 
cuits, and then, (with the exception of two yeai-s as agent for Augusta 
College, the last of which two years he also filled the ofiice of Super- 
intendent of Public Instruction in the State of Kentucky, and two 
years as presiding elder of Lexington District,) he filled stations in 
many of the most important towns and cities of the Conference. He 
was elected and ordained Bishop in 1854, at the General Conference 
held in the month of May, in Columbus, Ga., Bishop Soule officiating, 
with the aid of Bishops Andrew, Capers, and Paine. His home is 
in the city of Louisville, Ky. 

Iii^li$>p IVilliaiii M. lll'iglitiiiaii^ ©.Bc^ was born in 
Charleston, S. C, January 29, 1808. He was married to Miss Sarah 
B. Shackelford, at Cokesbury, S. C, January T, 1834, and after her 
death, to Miss Maria D. Davis, ]N"ovember 14, 1863. He was con- 
verted in April, 1825, and licensed to preach the following year. He 



Appendix. 777 

was admitted on trial in the Sontli Carolina Conference February 6, 
1828, and into full connection two years after. He was transferred 
to tlie Alabama Conference in 1859. He was ordained deacon by 
Bishop Sonle, at Colmnbia, S. C, and elder by Bishop Hedding, at 
Darlington, S. C. He filled the following appointments : Pee Dee 
Circuit, 1828; Orangeburgh, 1829; Charleston Station, 1830; Santee, 
1831; Camden, 1832; Abbeville, 1833; Agent for Eandolph Macon 
College, 1834r-36 ; Professor of English Literature in Eandolph Ma- 
con College, 1837-38; presiding elder of the Cokesbury District, 
1839-40; and editor of the "Southern Christian Advocate" to May, 
1854. Prom 1851 to 1859 President of "Woodford College, S. C. ; 
then Chancellor of the Southern University, Alabama, until July, 1867. 
He was elected and ordained Bishoj) in May, 1866, at the General 
Conference held in 'New Orleans. He received the following degrees : 
A.M., from the College of Charleston ; D.D., from Randolph Macon 
College ; and LL.D., from the College of Charleston. He resides in 
Charleston, S. C. 

Bi^liop M®llaiiel M. M'Tyeif©, B.B., was born July 28, 
1821, in Barnwell District, S. C. He was married to Miss Amelia 
Townsend in E'ovember, 1817. He was converted in 1837, and felt 
called to preach while a student at Pandol|)li Macon College. He was 
admitted on trial in the Virginia Conference, ^November, 1845. He 
was transferred in 1846 to the Alabama Conference, to fill Dr. T. O. 
Summers' charge in Mobile. In 1848 he was transferred to the 
Louisiana Conference and stationed in ]^ew Orleans, and in 1862 he 
was transferred to the Montgomery Conference. He was ordained 
deacon in Montgomery, Ala., by Bishop Paine, December, 1847, and 
elder in Shreveport, La., by Bishop Capers, December, 1849. He 
has filled the following appointments : Traveled with presiding elder 
on Prince Edward Circuit, Virginia Conference, from June to 
N"ovember, 1845. In ]!!»[ovember, 1845, appointed to Williamsburgh 
Station, Ya. ; June, 1846, transferred to Mobile, Alabama Confer- 
ence ; January, 1847, Demopohs Station; December, 1847, Co- 
lumbus Station, Miss. ; December, 1848, l^ew Orleans. He has held 
the following positions in connection with the schools and other in- 
stitutions of the Church : Assistant Professor of Mathematics and 
Ancient Languages in Randolph Macon College ; Editor of the 
45 



778 Methodist Bishops. 

" 'New Orleans Christian Advocate ; " editor of " The Christian Ad- 
vocate," at Nashville, Tenn. ; and President of the Board of Trustees 
of Yanderbilt University, at E'ashville. He was elected and ordained 
Bishop at the General Conference held in New Orleans in 1866. He 
has received the following degrees : A.B. and A.M., from Kandolph 
Macon College, and the degree of D.D., from Wesleyan University, 
Florence, Ala. His residence is at the Yanderbilt University, J^asli- 
ville, Tenn. 

Si§Iiop •Folaii Clirlstiaii Meener^ B,B,5 was born in 
Baltimore, Md., February 7, 1819. He prepared for coUege at Wil- 
braham Academy, and became a member of the first regular class 
organized in Wesleyan University, at Middletown, Conn., where he 
graduated in 1835. He was converted in Baltimore, Md., in 1838 ; 
licensed to preach in Alabama, and was admitted on probation in the 
Alabama Conference in 1843. In 1848 he was sent to New Orleans, 
where he remained twenty years, being a]3pointed successively to the 
pastorate of the Poydras-street, Carondolet-street, and Felicity-street 
Clinrches, and presiding elder of the I^ew Orleans District. He was 
also, from 1866, editor of " The E'ew Orleans Christian Advocate." 
He was elected and ordained Bishop in May, 1870. His residence is 
in ^New Orleans, Louisiana. 

:Si§li®p Alpltetts l¥ateFS ll^il§oii5 B,l>., elected in 1882, 
is the son of the late Rev. E'orval Wilson, who was prominent in Mary- 
land and Virginia, and in the councils of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. He is a native of Baltimore, Md., born in 1834 ; was converted 
in early life, and a student at Columbian College, Washington city, 
and for a while studied medicine. Entering the ministry at the early 
age of nineteen, he was received into the Baltimore Conference of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church in 1853, very soon took rank in the min- 
istry, and commanded some of the best appointments in Baltimore 
and elsewhere. Health failing, he studied and practiced law awhile, 
but soon resumed the itinerant ministry. When the Baltimore Con- 
ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was organized, he 
was one of the foremost members ; his eminent abilities were soon 
recognized, and he was honored from the first with a seat in the Gen- 
eral Conference, to which he has been elected four times. He has 
been honored with the title of Doctor of Divinity. At the General 



Appendix. 779 

Conference of 1878, at Atlanta, Ga., lie was elected Secretary of the 
Board of Missions, since wliich this department has been greatly 
enlarged. His thorough canvass of the Churches, and vivid portrayals 
of the need of more activity and larger gifts to missions, enabled the 
Board to meet the growing wants of the foreign mission work. His 
able pulpit and platform ministrations in behalf of this cause, and his 
rare executive abilities, caused the Church to call him to the higher 
work of the Episcopacy. He was a delegate to the great Ecumenical 
Conference, at London, England, in September, 1881, and read a paper 
on " The Influence of Methodism on Other Denominations," which 
elicited high encomiums of praise. A work on ^' Missions " from his 
pen has just appeared from the Southern Methodist Publishing House, 
which is highly spoken of. He has the elements of character to make 
a leader, and. will make his impress in the councils of the Church in 
shaping her progressive movements. He is of medium height, com- 
pactly and muscularly built without being fleshy, with admirable equi- 
poise, a vigorous body and mind, face heavily bearded ; sociable, dig- 
nified, and gentlemanly in appearance. He was the only one elected 
on the first ballot. 

Bisliop fjliitis Farker, H.B., has been a quarter of a cent- 
ury identified with the aggressive movements of the extreme South, 
among the most difiicult fields in the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, to build up Methodism, owing to the cosmopolitan character of 
the people. A native of Rome, IN". Y., born in 1829, he went to New 
Orleans in his boyhood, and while engaged as a clerk supplemented 
his meager home education by rising at four o'clock in the morning to 
master Latin and Greek, before commencing the duties of the day. 
Converted young, he commenced to preach soon after, and was received 
into the Louisiana Conference in 1849, in his twenty-first year. After 
four years of circuit work he was appointed to J^ew Orleans, and has 
been since then laboring in the chief stations — a good part of the 
time as presiding elder on that district. Part of the time while in the 
latter oflicehe has performed the duties of editor of the "New Orleans 
Christian Advocate," and so succeeded Bishops M'Tyeire and Keener, 
who were both editors of that paper. It has risen to great popularity 
in the Connection, and his polished editorials have won him journalistic 
fame among the cultivated outside of the Church. Five times he has 



780 Methodist Bishops. 

been elected a delegate to General Conference, the last four times in suc- 
cession. As a writer he is clear, smooth, and forcible, and his editorials 
always contain food for thought. As a preacher he is eloquent and 
profound, bringing out the hidden meaning of Scripture in his ser- 
mons. Coupled with hi& culture and scholarly attainments, his deep 
piety, sound judgment, modest demeanor, meek spirit, amiability and 
simplicity of manners, make him eminently fit to adorn any station in 
the Church, or fill any ofiiee in her gift. A man of fine presence, tall 
and large frame, well cushioned with flesh, without being unduly stout, 
rather tawny skin, piercing black eyes, dignified and courtly appear- 
ance, and in fine vigorous health. He was elected Bishop in 1882. 

Bisliop J"©!!!! Cooper f^r^sifeerry, H.II., is a native of 
the city of ]N"orfolk, Ya., born December 5, 1829. "Was noted in his 
boyhood and youth for excellency of cliaracter. In his fifteenth year 
he was converted. Entered Randolph Macon College, and was grad- 
uated with the first honor of the class in 1848. The same year he was 
admitted on trial in the Yirginia Conference of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, South, and has been identified with that body ever since. 
He soon took rank and filled the best appointments, including Wash- 
ington city, Richmond, and Petersburgh ; was chaj^lain of both Ran- 
dolph Macon College and the TJniversity of Yirginia, the former 
honoring him w^ith D.D. When the war began he entered the Con- 
federate army as a chaplain, and continued till the close of the struggle 
— a service in Avhich he fearlessly discharged ' his duties. He w^as 
sorely wounded, which injured the sight of one of his eyes, and was 
taken a prisoner. He v/as greatly beloved and honored by the soldiers 
for his heroic devotion to their interests. He held for a time the posi- 
tion of Superintendent of Chaplains for the Yirginia Conference. In 
1875 he was elected professor in the Theological Department of Yan- 
derbilt University, which position he has honored ; and if he had not 
been elevated to the Episcopacy he would have been elected to take 
the place of the late Dr. Summers as dean, because of his varied talents 
and scholastic culture. He is not an author, but has written a great 
deal for the Church press which has attracted attention. He has been 
a member of four General Conferences, and, although honored so 
frequently by his Conference, he speaks but seldom, but has the repu- 
tation of being an elegant, chaste, scholarly, and eloquent preacher. 



Appendix. 781 

He possesses a clear analytical mind, is an able theologian, and lias a 
judicial tendency. Of tlie purest character, humble in his walk, retir- 
ing, smart, spirited. Of medium height, high forehead, good health 
without being stout, well bearded, and eyes shaded with glasses. He 
was elected on the second ballot, and is fourth in the order of the new 
Bishoj)S elected in 1882. 

Bislfiop Ilo?>ert Keiinon Margrovc, B.D.^ was not a 
member of the General Conference which elected him a Bishoj^ in 
1882. He was born in Picldns County, Ala., September 17, 1829, 
and was converted at the early age of eleven years. He entered the 
University of Alabama, and was graduated w^th signal honor ; joined 
the Alabama Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Sontli, 
in 1857. He was soon recognized as an able preacher, and occujDied 
appointments at Mobile and other charges in Alabama; was trans- 
ferred to Kentucky, and s^tationed at Lexington ; and from thence' 
became a member of the Tennessee Conference, and was stationed at 
M'Kendree Church, (the seat of the General Conference of 1882,) and 
other points. Has been presiding elder of three districts — the IS'ash- 
ville, Franklin, and Clarkville Districts. The latter he vacates by his 
election to the Episcopacy. Was honored with A.B. and A.M. by the 
University of Alabama, :and D.D. by Emory College. His first con- 
nection with educational institutions was as Adjunct Professor of 
Mathematics at the University of Alabama ; then President of Cen- 
tenary Institute, Akbama, and President of Tennessee Female College. 
He was a member of the Cape May Commission, which adds to the 
interest in his election throughout Methodism. Since the death of 
Dr. Summers his name had been mentioned in connection with one of 
the General Conference offices at JSTashville had he not been elected 
Bishop. He has been a member of three General Conferences previous 
to this one, and a member of the Book Committee for the past four 
years, and otherwise placed in trusts by the Church. He is a man of 
broad culture and catholic spirit, with progressive views. Though not 
widely known in authorship, he is a fine writer. It is believed that he 
possesses all the desirable qualities for the Episcopal office, and will 
meet the large expectations of the people. Of good height, large 
frame well filled, pleasant countenance, dignified carriage, slight 
l>eard, quite gray for his years, very genial and affable. 



EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATIOK 



IBIsliop J. J". Eslier was born in Balderheim, Alsatia, France, 
December 11, 1823. He was married August 8, 1849, at Il^ortlifield, 
111., to Miss Anna B. Schneider. He was converted and called to 
preach in February, 1834. He joined the Illinois Conference in 
June, 1845, having been an exhorter from his sixteenth year. He 
was ordained deacon, June, 1847, and elder, June, 1849, by Bishop 
John Seybert, at ISTapierville, 111. He filled the following appoint- 
ments : Bock Biver, one year ; Iowa Mission, two years ; Milwaukee, 
two years ; Elkhart, one year ; Wisconsin District, four years ; Chicago, 
Wells-street Station, one year ; Chicago District, four years ; Plain- 
field, two years. Fie was editor of Sunday-school literature, and 
agent of IN^orth-western College. He was elected Bishop first at 
Buffalo, October 9, 1863 ; second, at Pittsburgh, October, 1867; third, 
at ]N'apierville, 111., October, 1871. His place of residence is 
Chicago, 111. 

M€T. Mtidolpli ©t^l>l>§, II,I>., was born a short distance 
from the famous city of Worms, on the beautiful Biver Bhine. He 
was educated partly in Germany. He emigrated with his parents to 
this country in 1852, and settled in Stephenson County, 111. He 
was converted in 1854, and began to preach in 1856. He served in 
the Illinois and Iowa Conferences until called to be one of the agents 
to establish the ^N'orth-western College, at IS^apierville, 111. Here he 
served tAvo terms, then went back to. Iowa, and served as district and 
presiding elder for nearly four years. The Oeneral Conference, held 
in Pittsburgh, Pa., 1867, elected him to the editorship of the " Christ- 
liche Botschofter," the German organ of the Church. He served 
eight years in this position. At the General Conference in Bhiladel- 
phia. Pa., 1875, he was elected Bishop, and re-elected in 1879. He 
was fraternal delegate of his Church to the Methodist Episcopal 



Appe]s-dix. 788 

Clinrcli when tlie General Conference met in Chicago, and served 
in the same capacity when the General Conference was held in Brook- 
lyn, ^. Y. 

Bislaop Iteiiljeii Yeakel was born Angust 3, 1827, at Upper 
Hanover, Pa. He was married March 28, 1855, to Miss Sarak 
Schnbert. He was converted October, 1847, and called to preach in 
1850. He was licensed as local preacher June 10, 1852, and admitted 
into the East Pennsylvania Conference February, 1854 He wais 
ordained deacon February, 1856, and elder in 1858 by Bishop Long. 
He served the following appointments : Montgomery, one year ; 
Orwigsburgh, one year ; Easton Mission, two years ; Lebanon, two 
years. He was Corresponding Secretary of the Missionary Society 
of the Evangelical Association four years ; editor of Sunday-School 
and Tract Department eight years, one year of which he was editor 
of the "Evangelical Messenger." He was first elected Bishop at 
]^apierville. 111., in 1871 ; his second election was in 1875 at th€j 
General Conference held in Philadelphia. His home is in Allen- 
town, Pa. 

Mi§li©p TIi®]!iisi§ S^^irsiisisi was born at Lehigh Gap, Pa.„ 
May 28, 1836. Entered East Pennsylvania Conference Evangelical 
Association, in February, 1859. Ordained deacon two years later at 
Schuylkill Haven, Pa., by Bishop J. Long, and elder two years later 
at Millersbnrgh, Pa., by Bishop W. W. Orwig. Traveled on Lehigh 
Circuit one year, and on ]N"orthampton Circuit, Allentown Station,, 
Eeading Mission, Pine Grove Station, Philadelphia Mission, each two 
years ; on Schuylkill Haven Station one year. Was elected presiding 
elder in 1871, and served four years on Pottsville District ; re-elected 
in 1875 and stationed on Easton District. Elected Bishop October 
26, 1875 by General Conference convened in Philadelphia ; re-elected 
October 16, 1879. :N"ow resides at Allentown, Pa. 



AFPJCAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCE 



Bi§ltop Baiiiel Payne, B.B^, left Charleston, S. C, in 
1834. He received his theological training in the Gettysburgh Semi- 
nary. He was distinguished while in Baltimore as a preacher, and 
was elected and ordained Bishop in I^Tew York in 1852. Bishop 
Payne is ex officio President of Wilberforce University, located at 
Xenia, Ohio. 

Bi§Iiop A. !¥, l¥ayiaiiiM was born September 21, 1821, in 
Caroline County, Md. He was married, first, October 26, 1813, to 
Sarah Ann Edgar; second, September 21, 1861, to Mrs. Eachel Jane 
Kobinson ; third. May 17, 1864, to Mrs. Harriet A. E. Green, of Balti- 
more. He was converted August, 1835, and called to preach, August, 
1839. He joined the Philadelphia Conference of the African Method- 
ist Episcopal Church, May, 1843, and continued a member of the 
same until 1848 : he was then transferred to the Baltimore Conference. 
He was ordained deacon in 1845, and elder in 1847, in Philadelphia, 
by Bishop Quinn. He has filled the following appointments : West 
Chester Circuit, Pa., two years ; Wesley Church, Philadel23hia, one 
year ; Salem, IST. J., one year ; Trenton, one year ; Union Bethel, 
Washington, D. C, one year ; Israel Church, Washington, two years ; 
Union Bethel, Washington, two years ; Port Deposit, Md., one year ; 
Ebenezer Church, Baltimore, one year ; Bethel Church, Baltimore, two 
years ; Israel Church, Washington, two years ; Union Bethel, Wash- 
ington, one year; Frederick, Md., one year; Bethel Church, Balti- 
more, three years. He was corresponding editor of the " Christian 
Pecorder," four years. He was elected Bishop May 16, 1864, in 
Philadelphia, and ordained May 22, 1864. His residence is Balti- 
more, Md. 

Hilltop «lal>ez Pitt Canipfeell, ^.T.B., lil^.©., was born 
in Slaughter ]^eck, Sussex County, Del., February 5, 1815. He was 
married in the city of New York, October 23, 1844, to Mrs. Stella 



Appendix. 785 

Medley of Providence, E. I. After her deatli he was married to 
Mrs. Mary Ann Shire, in Philadelphia, June Y, 1855. He was con- 
verted December 25, 1825. He became a member of the New York 
Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in May, 1841 ; 
joined the Philadelphia Conference, June, 1841 ; IS'ew York Confer- 
ence of Wesleyan Connection, April 11, 1816 ; and rejoined the E"ew 
York Conference, June, 1850. He was ordained deacon by Bishop 
Morris Brown, June 20, 1841, in the city of Providence, R. L, and 
elder in June, 1843, by the same Bishop in the city of 'New York. 
His appointments were as follows : Bucks County Circuit, three years 
and eight months ; Albany, one year ; Hudson City, two years ; Her- 
kimer and Schoharie Counties, 184Y-49 ; Buffalo, N. Y., 1850-52 ; 
Bethel Church, New York city, one year ; Flushing, L. L, one year ; 
Union Church, Philadelphia, 1854-56; "Wesley Church, Philadel- 
phia, 1859 ; Trenton, N. J., 1860-62 ; Bethel Church, Philadelphia, 
1862-63. He has been a Trustee of Wilberforce University, editor 
of " Christian Recorder," and General Book Steward or publisher of 
the books and papers of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. 
He was elected and ordained Bishop of the African Methodist Epis- 
copal Church in May, 1864. He has received the following degrees : 
S.T.D. from the Wilberforce University, and the degree of LL.D. 
from the University of Pennsylvania. He resides in Philadelphia. 

Hisliop cFaiiies A, Slierter w^as born February 4, 1817, 
at Washington, D. C. He was married to his first wife, Julia Ann 
Steward, at Philadelphia, September 12, 1839 ; and to his present 
wife, Maria Carter, November 4, 1853. Fie was converted February, 
1838, and called to preach, 1839. He joined the Baltimore Conference 
in April, 1846, and was transferred to the Ohio Conference, April, 
1857. He was ordained deacon in 1848, and elder in 1850, each time 
in Washington, D. C, Bishop William P. Quinn, officiating. He has 
filled the following appointments : First year, under elder Isaac B. 
Parker, on Chambersburgh and Lewistown Circuits ; second year, 
Lewistown Circuit ; third and fourth years, Penningtonville, Pa. ; fifth 
year, Lancaster, Pa. ; sixth and seventh years, Israel Church, Washing- 
ton, D. C. ; 1853-54, Bethel Church, Baltimore ; 1855-56, Ebenezer 
Church, Baltimore ; transferred to the Ohio Conference, 1857, and 
stationed at Columbus for two years ; next year stationed at Xenia, 



786 Methodist Bishops. 

next three years at Zanesville, next three years at Cincinnati. He was 
agent for one year for the Wilberforce University. In April, 1867, 
he was a23pointed to the Wylie-street Church, Pittsburgh. He was 
elected and ordained Bishop in TTashington, May, 1868. He resides 
at Wilberforce University, near Xenia, Ohio. 

Bisli®p J"€>liii M, ;Bf©^^ii was born September 8, 181Y, at 
Cantwell's Bridge, 'New Castle County, Del. He was married to Miss 
Mary Louisa Lewis, at Louisville, Ky., February 13, 1852. He was 
converted December 29, 1835, and called to preach April, 1836. He 
became a member of the Ohio Conference, September 15, 1848 ; the 
Indiana Conference, August, 1852; the Missouri Conference, 1855 ; 
and the Baltimore Conference, May 6, 1858. He was ordained deacon 
at Cincinnati, O., September 20, 1816, and elder, October 16, 1817, 
by Bishop Quinn. He has filled the following appointments : Detroit, 
Mich., three years ; Columbus, O., three years ; New Orleans, La., two 
years ; Asbury Chapel, Louisville, Ky., two years ; Bethel Church, 
Baltimore, 1858-61; Ebenezer Church, Baltimore, 1861-63; ]^orfolk, 
Ya., 1863-66. He has held the following positions : Principal of 
Imion Seminary, Columbus, O. ; Principal of High School, New 
Orleans ; Assistant Editor of " Christian Herald," of the African 
Methodist Episcopal Church ; Editor of the " Repository," a monthly 
periodical ; of the Missionary Reporter ; and Corresponding Secretary 
of the Missionary Society. He was elected and ordained Bishop at 
Washington, D. C, May, 1868. He lives at Washington, D. C, 



AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL ZION CHURCH. 



Kisli®p J"®§epla «J. CliMt®Bl was born in Philadelphia, Pa., 
October 3, 1823. He was married to Letitia Sisco, at Pittsburgh, Octo- 
ber 22, 18-1:4:. He was converted and called to preach in 1839. He 
joined the Philadelphia Conference in June, 1843, and was transferred 
to the Baltimore Conference in 1855. He was ordained deacon in 
1845 and elder in 1846 by Bishop Knsh. He has served the Chnrch 
in the following appointments : Trenton, 1^. J., one year ; George- 
town, D. C, one year; Pittsburgh, Pa., two years; "Washington, D. C, 
three years ; Harrisburgh, Pa., two years ; Allegheny, Pa., two years ; 
Philadelphia, Pa., two years ; Baltimore, Md., two years. He was 
elected and ordained Bishop at Philadelphia, in June, 1856. He lives 
in Philadelphia, Pa., 

Bi§li®p J©liii eF. M®®fe was born in Martinsburgh, Ya., 
1811. He was married in 183Y, at Harrisburgh, to Mrs. Frances 
Berges. He was converted in 1824, and called to preach in 1826. 
He joined the Philadelphia Conference in 1838. His appointments 
were as follows : Huntingdon, Pa., two years ; Lewiston, Pa., two 
3'ears ; Getty sburgh, Pa., two years ; Chambersburgh, Pa., one year ; 
York, Pa., two years; Philadelphia, Pa,, one year; Baltimore, Md., 
three years ; San Francisco, Cal., fourteen years. He was ordained 
deacon at Philadelphia, by Superintendent George Galbraith, and 
elder by Superintendent Christopher Rush. He has occupied the 
following positions : President of Missionary Board, and Teacher of 
Theological Class. He was elected Bishop at Washington, in 1868. 
He resides at Lincolnton, I^orth Carolina. 

Bisliop Siiagletoii T. Jones was born March 8, 1825, at 
Wrightsville, York County, Pa. He was married IsTovember 29, 1846, 
to Miss Mary J. Talbot, of Allegheny, Pa. He was converted Febru- 
ary 8, 1842, and called to preach September, 1844. He united with 
the Allegheny Conference, August 23, 1849 ; transferred to Baltimore 



788 Methodist Bishops. 

Conference, May, 1853 ; transferred to ^ew York Conference, 1857 ; 
transferred to Philadelphia Conference, 1859 ; transferred to E'ew 
York Conference, 1861; and transferred to Baltimore Conference, 
June, 1866. He was ordained deacon by Bishop Eush, August, 1850, 
and elder by Bishop Galbraith in 1857. His appointments have been 
as follows : Brownsville, one year ; Blairsville, one year ; Bedford, two 
years ; South Howard-street, Baltimore, Md., two years ; Washington, 
D. C, two years ; J^ewark, I^. J., two years ; Wesley Church, Phil- 
adelphia, Pa., two years; Harrisburgh, Pa., two years; Chambers- 
burgh, Pa., one year ; Zion Church, I^. J., two years ; Washington, 
D. C, two years. He has held the position of editor of "Zion's 
Standard and Weekly Review," and editor of the " Southern Religious 
Department " of " Zion's Standard and Review." He was elected and 
ordained Bishop in May, 1868. His place of residence is Washing- 
ton, D. C. 

lli§lii®p Jfiiiies ^¥. M®®cl was born May 30, 1831, in Ken- 
net Township, Chester County, Pa. He w^as married October 5, 1852, 
in Philadelphia, to Miss Hannah L. Ralph. After her death he was 
married in Washington, D. C, to Miss Sophia J.^ Nugent. He was 
converted in 1842, and called to preach in 1855. He joined the JSTew 
England Conference in 1859, and was transferred to the I^orth Caro- 
lina Conference in 1864. He was ordained deacon in Boston, Au2:ust 
2, 1860, by Bishop J. J. Clinton, and elder in Hartford, Conn., by 
Bishop William H. Bishop. He was first appointed to New Haven, 
where he remained one year ; afterward to missionary w^ork in I^ova 
Scotia for three years ; Bridgeport, Conn., six months ; l^ew Berne, 
IST. C, three years ; Fayette ville, ^N". C, two years ; Charlotte, 'N. C, 
four years. He held the following positions : Agent for the Board of 
Education for the State of JS'orth Carolina, and Assistant Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction for the State. He was elected and 
ordained Bishop at Charlotte, ]Sr. C, Jul}^, 1872. He lives in Eayette- 
ville, InT. C. 

^Kisliop ^aiiip§©ii H. Taibot was born in Westbridgewater, 
Mass., in the year 1819. He was married to Sarah He Groot, in 
Onondaga, 1^. Y., in 1844, and married his second wife, Sarah Gass- 
away, in December, 1865. He was converted and called to preach in 
1841. He became a member of the New York Conference of the 



Appendix. 789 

African Methodist Episcopal Zion Chnrcli in 1844. He was ordained 
deacon by Bishop Christopher Kush in 1844 and elder in 1845. His 
appointments were among the most important in the connection, such 
as New York, Boston, I^ewark, E". J., Eochester, and Syracuse, IST. Y., 
Washington, D. C, Troy, N. Y., and others, and he usually remained 
two years at each station. He was at one time Treasurer of the 
Book Concern of his Connection. He was elected and ordained 
Bishop at Philadelphia in 1864. He lives in "Washington, D. C. 



CANADIAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHUECE 



lli§li©p Albert Cariiiaii, BoB., ^ras born at Iroquois, Matilda 
Coimtj, Canada, June 27, 1833. He was married Jnlj 19, 1860, to 
Mary J. Lisk. He was converted in Febrnarj, 1834, and called to 
preacli in 1836. He was admitted on trial in the Bay Quinte Con- 
ference in 1837, and npon its division, in 1866, lie fell into tlie 
Ontario Conference. He was ordained deacon in 1860 by Bisliop 
Richardson, and elder by Bishop Smith in 1864. He was "appointed 
Professor of Mathematics in Albert College in 1857, and President 
in 1858. He had pastoral charge of Belleville one year, 1860. He 
was elected and ordained Bishop in ^apanee, Ontario, in 1874. He 
graduated with the degree of A.B. from Victoria College in 1855, 
received the degree of M.D. in 1860, and D.D. from Indiana Asbniy 
University in 1874. He resides in. BellcAdlle, Province of Ontario, 
Canada. 



COLOEED METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHUECH OF 

AlEEICA. 



Hi^liOp "W. M. Miles was born in Washington Connty, Ky., 
December 26, 1829. He was married to Miss Judy Hardin, and after 
lier death, to Miss Frances Cox, December 24, 1859. He was con- 
verted and called to preach in 1854. He joined the Kentucky Con- 
ference of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, and was ap- 
pointed missionary for the State in 1867; Center-street Station, 1868 ; 
and was Presiding Elder of the Lexington District, from 1868 to 1871. 
He has held the following positions : Agent of the Board of Educa- 
tion, President of the Board of Trustees, and Business Manager of 
the Book House. He was elected and ordained Bishop at Jackson, 
Tenn., December 21, 1871, by Bishop M'Tyeire. His home is in 
Louisville, Ky. 

Ili§liop Ei. M. Molsey was born July 3, 1841, near Sparta, 
Hancock County, _Ga. He was married l^ovember 8, 1862, to 
Harriet Turner, at Bishop Pierce's home near Sparta, Ca. He was 
converted May 10, 1855, and felt that he was called to preach from 
childhood. He was admitted into the Georgia Conference, of which 
he is still a member. He was ordained deacon January 7, 1869, at 
Augusta, Ga., by Bishop Pierce, and elder, December, 1869, at 
Macon, Ga., by the same Bishop. His appointments have been as 
follows : Hancock Circuit, two years ; Savannah, one year ; taught 
school, one year ; Augusta Station, two years and three months. He 
was elected and ordained Bishop) of the " Colored Methodist Ej)iscopal 
Church in America," in March, 1873. He resides in Augusta, Ga. 

Bislaop Isaac E<aiae was born March 4, 1834, in Madison 
County, Tenn. He was married to Frances Ann Boyer, December 
24, 1853. He was converted and called to preach in 1854. He was 
licensed to exhort in 1857, as the law of the State did not give 
license to slaves to preach. He was Licensed to preach in 1865, 



792 Methodist Bishops. 

and became a member of the Memphis Conference in l^ovember, 
1866. He was ordained deacon by Bishop Bobert Paine, at Jackson, 
Tenn., in 1866, and elder by the same Bishop in 18 67. He tilled 
the following appointments : Jackson Station, two years ; Jackson 
District from 1867 to 1871 ; afterward the station from 1872 to 1873. 
He was elected and ordained Bishop at Angusta, Ga., March, 1873. 
He lives at Jackson, Tenn. 



UUN ?^-u 



